Turning Twenty
by Marron B
Summary: Tsunade has decided to follow an old practice laid out by the older hokages in which all those shinobi that have just turned twenty, will be paired up and forced to marry? How will that effect the group? With Sasuke's return, Sakura does not know what to think. Shikamaru was finally getting somewhere with Temari, but now what? And lets not forget NaruHina and NejiTen. SS SI NH NT
1. Paired up

**Hi…**** I haven't written a story in ****quite a while now, I think two years? Anyways, I've taken this time off and matured as an author and I hope you enjoy this story. It's a little slow right now because it was just the prologue, but I promise it will get much better in the next chapter which I will have uploaded within the week :) **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Why Tsunade had called him here was unknown to him, in fact one might argue that it was still quite early, but when the hokage summons you to her office, saying no was not much of an option.

He slowly but surely made his way up the staircase and into the orange building where Tsunade was. He was pretty sure that she was summoning him for a mission, in fact now that he thought of it, that's what she had been doing for quite a while now.. putting him on endless missions that somebody else could easily lead. He sighed, why did it always have to be him? So troublesome.

Finally Shikamaru made it to the door labelled hokage, he knocked thrice and heard a "come in" from the other end and made his way inside. Quick to observe his surroundings, Shikamaru noticed that there were three people in this room aside from himself. For one there was the hokage herself, next to her stood Shizune, her faithful assistant but what seemed unusual was the third person. Shikamaru's gaze stayed on that person for a few seconds longer than it had on the others, but he inevitably sighed. He didn't care, not right now anyways, all he wanted was to know what Tsunade wanted and be on his way.

"Ah, Shikamaru!" Tsunade grinned, "glad you could join us!"

"Us?" Shikamaru said, turning his gaze to the other person in the room. "Just what exactly is he doing here?"

"Well... you'll know in moment's time, for now all I ask of you is that you wait."

So Shikamaru waited... and he waited... and he waited..

***CREEEEK* **

The door opened, but ever so slightly, it was almost as if it had been blown open by the wind. But obviously it hadn't because there was a girl standing in the doorway. She shyly entered the room and timidly smiled.

"I-I got your m-message L-Lady Tsunade.." She shyly mumbled, "B-Brother too.. he is on his way."

"Glad you made it Hinata." Tsunade smirked. _This is going to be interesting indeed._

Hinata smiled gently, but her smile faded away when she noticed that there was someone else in the room, other than the two women and Shikamaru. But she chose not to say anything of it as she didn't like to meddle in other people's business, so instead she crept to a corner in the room and stood there patiently.

Like Hinata said, a few minutes after she had arrived, came the arrival of her brother and one of his teammates. It was Neji Hyuuga and Tenten, they arrived together and like everybody before them silently wondered why there was somebody who should not be here amongst them.

"So uh.. Lady Tsunade? What exactly are we doi-"

"Shhh.. Shikamaru, we are still waiting for three more."

"Three more?" Shikamaru sighed, _this is most likely going to be a mission with the squads of his year.. so if he was correct.. wait a minute? Why did Tsunade say only three.._

Finally after a good ten minutes, the final three ninjas arrived. It was none other than Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki.

Ino led the way with Sakura and Naruto coming in behind her, however before she made it all the way in she froze in her tracks, leading to Naruto and Sakura crashing into her.

"Ino! Why did you stop, you dumb-" but Sakura also stopped talking as she looked to where Ino was looking. "I-It can't be.."

"Sakura?" Naruto blinked, "what am I missing here?" But in the end, he too inevitably looked to where Sakura was looking and it felt as though the air had been sucked out of him and he was frozen in time.

It was non other than their missing counterpart from Team Seven.

It was their beloved Sasuke.

Naruto clenched his fists, it was a bittersweet moment for him, the fact that it had been eight years since he last saw his comrade. They were all now twenty years old, Naruto and Sasuke hadn't met since that time that Naruto tried to stop him from going to Orochimaru, and if he recalled that moment was nothing close to a fond memory. He clenched his fists harder, angry at Sasuke for not returning to the village sooner and for doing the deeds he did.

"S-Sasuke..." Sakura finally let out, she was in a similar state to that of Naruto, she was torn between happiness, anger and sadness. The fact was that the Uchiha would always hold a soft spot in her heart that nobody else could ever hope to occupy. Seeing him in front of her like this... it was just too much.

"Lady Tsunade, what is the meaning of this?" Neji Hyuuga asked the Hokage. "Why are _he_ here?" His tone turned rather cold.

"I know you all must have many questions for me, and I will answer every single one. First and foremost, you all must be wondering what Sasuke is doing here." Tsunade spoke in a monotone, "Sasuke Uchiha... it has been eight years since you left our village and not once did you think to inform us of your whereabouts." Tsunade said, closing her eyes and resting her elbows on the table.

Sasuke Uchiha said nothing of course.

"You deserted our village, however, we never chose to abandon our attachment to have and always will be welcome here in the leaf village."

Sasuke said nothing again.

"We must thank you... for getting rid of Orochimaru once and for all, for all of us." Tsunade said, simultaneously opening her eyes.

Everybody in the room let out a shock.

Shikamaru furrowed his brows, so Sasuke had been the one to kill Orochimaru? Irony at his finest, but he didn't understand why all of them were here if this was to welcome Sasuke back, if that were the case then wouldn't it just be Naruto, Sakura and their team leader Kakashi? That was not the reason they were all gathered here, he concluded that much.

Tsunade turned her attention to the ninja that was farthest away from her in the room, that was the number one knucklehead ninja: Naruto. His head was lowered and his bangs covered his face, both of his fists were clenched, Tsunade suspected he was not feeling okay.

Before anybody could comprehend anything, Naruto rushed forward and grabbed Sasuke by the collar. Sasuke didn't react much, his arms fell to his sides and he simply let Naruto grab him.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, "eight years?! Eight years, every single day and night, Sakura and I have been thinking about what has happened to you! But you? You didn't think twice when we left, you just-" Naruto let go of Sasuke and punched a wall, "did we really mean nothing to you at all?!"

"Naruto." Sasuke finally spoke, it was the first time he had spoken since all of them had gathered here. "I succeeded in getting what I wanted, and that was to get stronger and defeat my brother, Itachi." He paused, "with that being said, Orochimaru was of no use to me any longer, so I disposed of him before he could strike."

"And so you chose to return to the leaf village." Neji concluded, "why should we trust you?"

"Don't. I'm not asking you too." Sasuke's and Neji's cold glares were about even.

"That is enough!" Tsunade shouted, slamming her hand on the table. "Back to business, as to why I called all of you here!" Everybody flinched, "Sasuke has told me that... well... he wishes to rebuild his clan." Tsunade paused to drink a glass of water, "and that reminded me of something that the hokages had practiced many years ago but now it had been abandoned."

"And what is that, milady?" Sakura asked.

"See, the hokage's wanted to make sure that future generations of our village remained balanced. So they followed through with this practice for a period of time. You all are twenty years old correct? And next to none of you are married, no less in any committed relationship, nothing of that sort." Tsunade began to smirk, knowing that this was a good as time as ever to let them know of her wondrous plan. "The village is not very strong in the next generation.. my meaning is that there aren't many... babies in this village as of right now."

_Oh boy... _Ino thought to herself.

"What they practiced was that once a shinobi turned twenty years old, they would be paired with someone they knew very well and somebody who would be good for them. Eventually if they worked out their differences in a period of time, they would be getting married and the rest happens by itself.. So I have decided to pair you all up with each other." She grinned evilly, "the second you all walked into this room, the jutsu did its job. As of today... you all are officially paired up!"

"WHAT?!" Everybody in the room shouted out in unison.

"N-No way! You can't do this, Lady Tsunade!" Tenten shouted.

"Can't I? I'm the hokage, I can do whatever I want." She snorted, "there may be a shinobi war in the next few years so that gives all the more reason to follow through with this practice. I want the village to be secure in the next generation in case... in case, some of you don't make it back." Tsunade said.

"We have gathered all of you here because you have the most ideal strengths and genetics from those of your age group." Shizune said from Tsunade's side. "I will now announce the pairs and then tell you what is going to be happening."

There was mixed reactions from the room, that's for sure.

'This is perfect!' Naruto thought to himself, he turned his gaze towards Sakura and blushed, 'maybe if I'm paired with Sakura I can finally have a chance with her!'

'She can't be serious can she?!... what if.. what if I'm paired with somebody that I don't suit at all.. why is Naruto looking at me like that? Oh god! What if I'm paired with him?!' Sakura mentally screamed to herself.

'N-Naruto...' Hinata thought.

'What a drag... and here I was just starting to figure out women' Shikamaru thought, 'Temari...'

"Now! For the pairings! When I call your name, please come to the front of the room! You will be given a scroll that you must sign saying you consent to this! Once that is done you and your partner may leave." Shizune started.

"Hold on.. consent? Couldn't we simply refuse to do so?" Ino asked, dumbfounded.

"You could." Tsunade smirked, "but that would mean... you lose all of your ninja abilities."

Everybody sweat dropped.

"First pairing!" Shizune finally began, "Neji Hyuuga!"

Neji stepped forward, not showing any emotion like always.

"And Tenten!" She finished, Tenten strolled forward and breathed a sigh of relief. If she was to be stuck with anyone in this room, she was glad it was Neji, at least she knew him well.

They both signed the scroll and left the room together.

"Next... Naruto Uzumaki!" Shizune started again, it seemed as if she was almost doing this on purpose to make it more dramatic.

'Oh god, please not me, please, please...' Sakura closed her eyes, scared that it would be her.

"Hinata Hyuuga!" Shizune finished. Hinata turned red as a tomato and slowly walked to the front of the room where Naruto was already standing. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief.

"N-Naruto... I..."

"Hinata? Well next to Sakura, I'm glad I got you!" Naruto gave a huge smile and gave a thumbs up, "c'mon!" He shouted and the two of them left the room.

"Sakura Haruno, you will be matched with..." Shizune paused, "well what are the odds.. Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura stared long and hard at the Uchiha, years ago she would have killed for this moment, but now? Did she really want this now? They signed the document and left the room in silence.

"And lastly... Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka." Shizune smiled, "that wasn't so bad now, was it?"

Ino reluctantly looked over at Shikamaru, she knew that he had a thing for Temari and felt like she would be a burden on Shikamaru. Normally the two of them would be chatting it up, but they too left the room in silence.

"Lady Tsunade, do you think this was a good idea?" Shizune asked her mentor after everybody had left the room.

"Time will tell Shizune." Tsunade smiled.

* * *

**So basically they have all been paired up and despite no romantic feelings whatsoever between them for the most part they will all be together by the end of this fic :) **

**Please review so I know that you like the story and so I may decide to continue, thank you!**

**-MarronB**


	2. The First Day

**Well I decided to update right away because the introduction didn't really have anything in it, and yeah LOL … **

**So basically I will update every two weeks, on either tuesday-wednesday BUT keyword: BUT.. Let's say if I were to get an adequate number of reviews… I would maybe change my mind hehe :) **

**But regardless, I'll keep updating :) Just if you want me to update say a week in advance or even sooner, then review review review!**

**Also, I'm not sure if the characters are OOC, let me know if I need to fix any of them and I will :) **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

'He walked three or four steps ahead of me the entire time, I wasn't even sure where we were going, or if I was even supposed to follow him. I mean that would have been the logical thing to do after all, follow him. And why was I acting so weird anyways?' Ino thought to herself as she followed behind Shikamaru, 'I guess only one way to find out, might as well clear the air.'

"Shikamaru?" Ino finally said, breaking the silence between them, he stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Is something wrong?"

"Look, don't take it personally or anything." Shikamaru started, "but I'd like to be alone with my thoughts for now." He spoke, turning away from the blonde and continuing to walk away.

"B-But.." Ino started, she usually would not let somebody else get their way, especially Shikamaru, but this time something was different. He seemed so... distant all of a sudden. Was it because she was now a burden on him? His burden. They were stuck together unless they wanted to be stripped of their ninja abilities.

Shikamaru continued walking away from the blonde, with his hands dug in his pockets. He didn't know why, but he felt some sort of unnecessary anger towards Ino right now, it wasn't her fault, he knew that, but still he couldn't help it. He strode over to where he always went when he wanted to think, he took a seat on the chair and sighed.

"How did this happen... why now?" He mumbled to himself, it was horrible timing for him. He thought back to Ino, how he had always known her since their childhood days, and now he was expected to marry her? Even if that meant he loved somebody else?

Temari... He thought again, he had met the blonde from the sand for the first time at the chuunin exams many, many years ago. After that they met a few more times, growing closer with each meeting. Shikamaru was not one who was a big fan of romance and it took him a while to realize that he liked the blonde. He was sixteen when he realized he had developed feelings for her, eighteen when they had their first kiss and now... they were supposed to meet in a few weeks to decide if they should tell their parents about their relationship. But all of that was over now, he would have to tell Temari about this stupid jutsu that ruined everything.

"Dammit!" He growled, punching the chair. It was very illogical of him to take out his anger on Ino, but he could not help it. She was inevitably the thing that had come in the way of Temari and him.

* * *

They were getting many stares, in fact almost everybody in the village was looking at them. Well nobody could really blame them, it had been years since Sasuke was last seen in the village and everybody had thought that he was gone to the dark side for good or dead.

Sakura didn't know where they were going, but they were both walking next to each other, she followed his movements and that was it. She wanted to say something, she had so many questions to ask him, but... she couldn't bring herself to do it. Sasuke finally stopped in his tracks, Sakura gasped at where he had led her.

It was the old Uchiha place, where the entire Uchiha clan had resided before their bloody massacre twelve years prior. Sasuke clenched his fists and furrowed his brows, recalling everything.

"I did it." He mumbled, Sakura was unsure if he was talking to her or if he was simply talking to himself. "I avenged my clan."

"Sasuke.."

Sasuke ignored the pinkette and walked inside the gate, Sakura hesitantly followed him, unsure if she should or not. She gasped at the sheer emptiness of the place, but that is not what shocked her, not even the slightest.

It was the fact that nobody had lived here in over a decade and despite that, there was absolute no trace of dust or anything of that sort.

"Sasuke.. I have some questions." Sakura said firmly, she was not going to be that little girl that was always fawning over him like before, things have changed.

"Hn." He answered.

"Why didn't you... Why didn't you ever contact us?!" Sakura shouted, a little louder than she had meant too.

"Sakura, if you do not understand anything." He mumbled, "then I would advise you to keep your mouth shut." Sasuke growled a little bit.

"I don't understand anything? Sasuke, what is it here that I am not understanding?! You dropped everything and left in pursuit of power and Orochimaru, so you could avenge your clan and kill your brother. Am I correct so far?" She paused, "I want to know why you couldn't have kept in touch with us. We were your friends once, right? What was so-"

"Sakura, shut up!" Sasuke raised his voice, she had most definitely hit a nerve. "My clan, my pursuit of power, that has nothing to do with you!"

"Yes it does, after all we are-"

Before she could finish her sentence, he had her up against a wall and he was inches away from her face. He grabbed both her hands and pinned them behind her, so she could not move.

"Sakura, let me make one thing clear for you." Sasuke whispered, "you are nothing more to me.. than someone who is to help me rebuild my clan."

After he said that, he left to go inside, slamming the door behind him.

'So thats all he had to say to me after all these years then.' Sakura thought to herself, tears forming in her eyes. 'Then I'll just have to beat him at his own game, cha!'

* * *

"You know what, Neji?" Tenten said placing her arms on the railing that separated her from the river below her, "I don't really see this thing as being all too bad, to be honest."

"Why is that?" The Hyuuga asked her, mimicking her movements and looking to where she was looking, which was at the sky.

"W-What?" Tenten asked, a little bit flustered. "What I meant to say was I mean... if I'm in this with anyone I'm glad it was with you."

"Oh right, I understand." Neji said oblivious to what Tenten was trying to imply, "I'm glad I got paired with you as well, Tenten."

"Y-You are...?" Tenten gasped.

"Yes, compared to the other girls, you are a very capable kunoichi. Further more, I already know you well enough due to us being on the same team. The only thing I'm worried about is what Hinata's father may say." Neji said, "as you know the Hyuuga's marry within their bloodline, in order to keep the byukugan a secret. I don't want there to be a problem with this."

"Oh.. yeah... capable kunoichi, you're right." Tenten mumbled, quiet enough so that Neji couldn't hear her. He was almost oblivious to Tenten's feelings as Naruto was to Hinata's.

* * *

"You know, Hinata *SLURP* .. this is so exciting, ne?" Naruto said to Hinata, in between slurps of his ramen. The pair had decided to go to Ichiraku Ramen after they were dismissed from the hokages office.

"W-What do you mean, Naruto?" Hinata asked shyly.

"I mean well... I was hoping to be with Sakura.. but you're not so bad yourself! I mean you're much better than that awful Ino and Tenten kind of scares me too.. but you're really nice Hinata!" Naruto gave a thumbs up and continued finishing his ramen.

"R-Really nice? You think I'm.." Hinata blushed a little bit, twirling her fingers together. She had a crush on Naruto for the majority of her life, but she could never bring herself to admit it to him. She was always observing him, but she knew deep down in her heart that even if she were to confess to Naruto it would never happen between them. It was against the laws of the Hyuuga. But now..? Oh the relief and joy she had felt when Lady Tsunade called her name with Naruto's, she was so happy.

"Hinata..? You okay there?" Naruto asked, noticing Hinata had zoned out a bit, "everything alright?" Naruto asked, inching closer to her.

"N-Naruto!" Hinata shouted at the sudden closeness of the pair. "I.. It's nothing!"

_Weird... I guess thats Hinata for you. _Naruto thought to himself, nonetheless he was glad that he was paired with her, for she was kind.

* * *

"Three hours have passed, milady. How do you think they're doing?" Shizune asked her mentor.

"I can't say. I'm sure Neji and Tenten are alright, Shikamaru and Ino should be the same, it's Sakura and Sasuke I'm worried about." Tsunade mumbled, "tell you what Shizune. Gather the eight of them together and tell them that we are sponsoring a dinner for them tonight, they are to arrive at the restaurant with their partner and they will each be given a private booth. If they are not to attend, tell them they will feel my wrath!" Tsunade growled.

"Y-Yes milady!" Shizune gulped, before leaving the room.

"I just hope that nothing goes wrong."

* * *

So the rest of the day progressed and each individual was told of the dinner and what would happen to them if they chose not to attend it. They were also told it was going to be a formal dinner and that they would all have to dress up.

"Oh Ino! You look absolutely beautiful!" Ino's mother cried out in joy, "Shikamaru will absolutely love you!"

"Mhmm.." Ino sweatdropped a little bit, she had told her parents the news and at first they were a little bit astonished that the hokage could suggest such a thing, but then when they heard that Ino were to be paired with Shikamaru, they were overjoyed! For he was a good family friend after all.

"If anybody can make an impression then its you honey." Ino's mother smiled, the doorbell rang signalling that Shikamaru was here to pick up the blonde, Mrs. Yamanaka rushed downstairs to open the door while Ino fumbled with her dress.

"Okay Ino, here we go. No need to be nervous, its just Shikamaru." Ino mumbled to herself, before leaving her room to head downstairs.

Shikamaru knew this would be a pain, but his parents insisted he go and he didn't want to face the wrath of the hokage anyways, that would be so troublesome.

"Ah, Shikamaru!" Mrs. Yamanaka greeted him at the door, she engulfed him in a big hug and made way for him so he could step inside the house.

"Hello, Mrs. Yamanaka." Shikamaru greeted her back.

"No need to be so formal sweetie! I am your mother in law to be!" She giggled, "Ino should be here any minute, now." She let go of Shikamaru and stood by the stairs, "Ino! Shikamaru is here!" She shouted.

"Coming, mom!" Ino called, Shikamaru closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head, he sighed, this was going to be such a pain.

"You look gorgeous! Don't you think so, Shikamaru?" Mrs. Yamanaka asked the young ninja.

Shikamaru opened his eyes and looked to where Mrs. Yamanaka was looking, his eyes widened a little bit, and his mouth stood agape.

In all these years since Shikamaru had known Ino, he never thought of her as anything other than a teammate or a sister. But here she was standing in front of him looking nothing less than... well... she was beautiful. Her blonde hair was shining in the light, it was let down, it was one of the few times that Shikamaru had ever seen Ino with her hair down to be honest. But it was the tight red dress that made him realize how womanly Ino had become over the last few years, more than anything else. The dress showcased every single one of her curves and Shikamaru blushed at the thought.

"Shikamaru?" Ino asked, standing next to him. "Is everything okay?" She continued.

"H-Huh? Yeah! Everything is fine!" Shikamaru said awkwardly, "should we get going then?"

"Yes, of course." Ino smiled, _at least he isn't avoiding me._

Once the pair were out of earshot, Mrs. Yamanaka let out a whimper.

"Ah, young love." She cried happily.

* * *

Sakura sighed, this wasn't fair at all.

The other girls would probably be at home, getting ready in the comfort of their own bed, knowing just where all of their things were. But here Sakura was at the Uchiha house. Sasuke had decided that she was going to be living here from now on, they had moved the majority of their things here, but everything was in boxes. So that meant that Sakura had absolutely no idea where any of her dresses were and she would have to make due with what she did find.

"Uggghh!" She growled to herself, she missed the livelihood of her house, it was in the central part of the village and it was so nice and active. The Uchiha district was lonely and quiet and nobody aside from Sakura and Sasuke lived here, frightening her just a little bit. But she was a capable kunoichi she could protect herself from intruders.

"Sakura. We are going to be late, are you done yet?" Sasuke asked from the other side of the door.

"Almost!" Sakura called back, _Maybe you should have at least asked me before you decided to do all this! Grrr! _"I'm done!"

Sasuke opened the door and came in, he stared long and hard at the pinkette.

"Just what are you wearing?" He asked her.

"What do you mean? I'm wearing a dress, we were supposed to dress up weren't we?"

"You call that a dress?" He snorted, "That's worse than what Naruto wears."

So Sakura's dress wasn't exactly glamorous, but it was the only thing that she could find. It was a simple black evening dress, her hair was in a bun and she had light pink makeup on, nothing fancy.

"Sakura, I don't approve." Sasuke stated, "I don't want you to embarass me."

"Eh? E-Embarass you?!" Sakura shouted, "ho-"

"Here. You will wear this." Sasuke tossed her a bag.

"W-Wha?" Sakura raised a brow pulling out the long silver dress that was inside the plastic bag, "wow sparkly.. Sasuke this is.."

"It was my mothers. I found it when I was looking through some stuff upstairs earlier."

"Y-You... you really would let me wear this? Are you sure?" Sakura gasped.

"Hn. Sakura, don't ask so many questions, just change out of that and lets head out. I don't want to be late."

"Okay." Sakura answered, Sasuke turned to leave the room, leaving Sakura by herself. 'I can't tell if Sasuke has changed over these years or if he hasn't... he's still closed off and won't talk to anybody, but in a way... in a way, he has opened up. Sasuke, I make a pledge to you, I will get you to open up to me, no matter what I have to do!' She thought to herself.

* * *

Neji and Tenten walked together to the restaurant, Tenten was dressed in a blue kimono and Neji was in a white one. Tenten didn't know what it was, but ever since their conversation earlier, she had felt a tinge of sadness whenever she saw Neji.

"You sure are quiet tonight." The Hyuuga said to Tenten, "something wrong?"

"What?" Tenten asked, avoiding his gaze, "no, nothing is wrong."

"Hn." Neji said, he was the Hyuuga protege, he had the all seeing Byukugan, he could see through anything. Although he didn't have it active right now, Neji had learned to recognize human psychology very well over the years and he knew that something was bugging Tenten. However, he chose not to pursue the issue because if Tenten wanted to talk to him about it, she would.

Tenten looked at her feet as she walked, just what was bothering her anyways? She didn't quite know herself. Was it the fact that Neji would never reciprocate her feelings? No that wasn't it, Tenten had fallen for the Hyuuga boy long ago and she always knew deep down that he may never love her back, but she lived with it. She was a strong capable kunoichi like Neji said, so stuff like that didn't bother her. Then what was it?

The pair arrived at the restaurant and saw that the only other people there were Hinata and Naruto, they were both matching in blue. Naruto wore a black tux with a blue tie and Hinata wore a sleeveless blue dress that made her eyes stand out. It was odd to see Naruto early, maybe Hinata was already having a positive influence on the ninja.

"Hey Neji! Tenten!" Naruto grinned, "you guys made it I see, grandma Tsunade isn't even here yet!"

"Hello Naruto!" Tenten said back, answering for both her and the Hyuuga. "I can see that, wonder where she is."

* * *

**SOOOO just wanted to clear something up… I'm going to pretend the events of shippuden didn't happen in this fic LOL .. and also Sasuke's "vengeance" will be cleared up in the later chapters. I absolutely love Itachi and want to incorporate him somehow in this story .. and well ya.**

**Soo review let me know what you think, any changes I should make to the characters, pairings you would like to see more of, pairings you'd like to see less of.**

**And I'm just wondering, how many of you actually read this bolded stuff? Serious question :$ **

**-See you all in two weeks! Maybe sooner ;) (Wink) (Wink)**

**-MarronB **


	3. Basketball

**Okay I simply can't update after every two weeks that is way way too long! I've decided to update every Wednesday now :) .. I'm very happy with the feedback I received and the many people that are following this story! You guys thanks so much! I feel so happy knowing so many people have liked my story! Anyways I just want to say thank you for the very kind reviews … I'm glad to know at least some people read these bolded lines, I've always wondered hehe :$ and ummm yeah! It's good to know that I've kept the characters in character so far, so that really ****helped and I'm glad everyone likes the couples :) **

**Enjoy! :) **

* * *

Tsunade was looking through a booklet.

"Lady Tsunade... the eight of them should be gathered at the restaurant shortly.. shouldn't you be attending there also?" Shizune asked her lady in command, but Tsunade didn't answer.

"This is very surprising." Tsunade said.

"Milady?"

"Shizune, I want you to go in my place. Inform the ninja of everything that is going to be taking place.. meanwhile I will be here." Tsunade informed the younger girl, Shizune nodded and headed out the door.

"Yes!"

'This is surprising, indeed.'

* * *

By the time Shizune had gotten to the restaurant, everybody had gathered there. Shizune couldn't help but notice that out of all the kunoichi present, it was Sakura who stood out the most. She sparkled in her gown and Shizune swore she had never seen something as elegant as what she was wearing before.

"Now, everybody please take your seats in any of the available booths, there is room for two at every booth." Shizune ordered, the eight of them obliged and found their respective seats. "You're probably thinking that we have nothing better to do than set you up on dates, and to be honest.. we don't." She laughed nervously, "in these times of peac-actually nevermind that hehe.. so anyways, why you are here! Lady Tsunade wants you all to get to know each other better, I mean you obviously know each other very well but when was the last time you had a meaningful conversation? There are cards at every table with some conversation starters on them. Order whatever you like for it is on the house for tonight!" Shizune said, before poofing away in the air.

"Conversation starters?" Neji raised a brow, picking up the card that was placed in front of him.

"What do they say?" Sakura said, also picking up the card.

"N-Number one.. tell your partner something y-you are afraid of." Hinata spoke from her table with Naruto.

"There seems to be four questions, all starting some sort of discussion with our respective pairs." Neji concluded.

"So what are you afraid of?" Ino asked Shikamaru, "I mean... we might as well do this thing while we wait for our server."

Although Shikamaru had been kind of distant since this morning, Ino was determined to make everything normal like it was before.

"Why do we have to do it? Such a pain." Shikamaru sighed, playing his hands behind his back.

"Shikamaru!" Ino screeched, "just do it!"

"Well fine then, sheesh. You don't have to be such a pain." Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "if you asked me this a few weeks ago I probably would have told you something like losing my friends or losing a loved one. But now I realized it was losing..." But Shikamaru couldn't bring himself to finish what he was saying, however Ino didn't need him to say anything more for she understood what he was talking about.

"S-Shikamaru.. I'm so sorry." Ino mumbled, "I know that doesn't change anything but.."

"It isn't your fault, I know that." Shikamaru gave a forced half smile, "I just wish things were different."

Ino didn't know why but those words stung her, she felt like she was repulsive to Shikamaru and that being stuck with her for the rest of his life seemed like a punishment, however, she would not let that show, not in the slightest.

"How about you? What are you afraid of, Ino?" The lazy ninja asked Ino.

"Me?" Ino placed her fingers on her chin in a thinking manner, "well... sometimes I feel like I'm not good enough.. like I've fallen behind as a ninja and that I will continue to fall behind." Ino blushed a little bit at her confession, "don't go telling anyone that! I've never told anyone!"

"Why do you feel like that, Ino? You're one of the strongest girls I know."

"I know I'm strong... it's just... think back to when we were all genin. I used to brag about how much better I was than Sakura or Hinata, but look now... Sakura is a highly proclaimed medical ninja that works at the hospital and Hinata.. she's so skilled with her byakugan.. I'm just Ino."

"You shouldn't be comparing yourself to others, what good is that gonna do?"

"I know... but I can't help it-" before Ino could finish, the waiter had arrived at their table in order to take their orders.

'She puts up a brave front so that nobody can see how insecure she really is.' Shikamaru thought to himself.

'I doubt he's actually going to confess anything to me at all' Sakura mentally said to herself. She sighed, how was she going to crack Sasuke open?

"This was not part of the deal." Sasuke mumbled quiet enough so that Sakura couldn't hear, he thought back to what Tsunade had said to him.

_"__Very well. I will fulfill your condition, as long as you fulfill all of the things that I present to you."_

_"__Hn. Okay."_

He had no choice, he was not one to go back on his word. Geez, now he sounded like Naruto.

"Sakura. What is it that you are afraid of?" Sasuke asked the pinkette.

"Heh?" Sakura asked, choking on her water. She was clearly startled that Sasuke Uchiha was asking her something. She burst into a coughing fit.

After a minute or two, her coughs slowly began to recede. The Uchiha looked anything but pleased.

"What was that?" He asked, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"W-Wha..?" Sakura said, still not fully recovered from it. "I was coughing."

"Sakura, I have dressed you like an Uchiha. Now you must require the etiquette of one." Sasuke said in a monotone, "take those elbows off the table." He said, ushering at her elbows which were both promptly placed on the table, she quickly moved them back at his command.

"Are you implying that I don't have manners?" Sakura raised an eyebrow, getting a little bit annoyed now too.

"You are going to be marrying me." He stated, "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior, whether it be in private or in public. Understood?" He asked, Sakura hated being the type of girls to take orders like that from a guy, but she nodded. She would trouble him later in private, this was not the same Sakura that he abandoned eight years ago, she would prove that too him.

* * *

The night grew on and everybody had finished with their meals and were heading to a nearby park, the eight of them.

"Look!" Naruto called, pointing towards a basketball hoop. "We should all play a round!" He shouted. "Boys versus girls?"

"N-Naruto.. I'm not very good..." Hinata mumbled, "y-you go on and play.."

"That's okay Hinata! I'll teach you!" Naruto grinned, "come here!" He said, dragging Hinata to the centre of the basketball court.

"Do you have a ball, dobe?" Sasuke said to his blonde teammate.

"You shutup teme!" Naruto growled, his eyes bulging out of his eye sockets. "You clearly haven't been in konoha very long." Naruto smirked. He did a few hand signs and then placed a hand on the ground. "Summoning jutsu!"

A toad emerged in front of him.

"Hey!" The toad said to Naruto **(sorry forgot his name :$)**, "what can I do for ya?"

"I need you to go get me a basketball!" Naruto said happily. The toad obliged and left to go find Naruto a basketball.

"It's getting kind of late." Ino said, looking at the sky. "Can't we play tomorrow?"

"Awe c'mon, it'll be fun." Tenten replied to the blonde, "we have to show these boys who the bosses are around here."

"Oh yeah." Ino placed a hand on her mouth and giggled. "Oh Shikaaaamaru... betcha I can make more shots than you..."

"Ino, why do you have to be so troublesome?" Shikamaru yawned, taking a seat on a nearby bench.

"You're no fun!" She stomped her foot on the ground.

"Hinata here let me show you how to shoot." Naruto said, he went behind the Hyuuga and grabbed both of her arms, it would appear to be an embrace if an onlooker were to be watching.

"N-Naruto...!" Hinata squealed, turning a very deep red.

"You raise your arms like this... and shoot!" He grinned, lifting her arms up with this. "Do you get the idea?"

"Y-Yes... Naruto.." She mumbled.

"You know you can let her go now." Sakura said, rolling her eyes. Naruto realized that he still had his arms around the girl, instantly let her go and blushed a faint pink.

"Y-yeah.. sorry Hinata."

Hinata didn't have any time to say anything as the toad had returned with a basketball.

"Here ya go boss!" He said, before poofing off.

"Let's play ball!" Naruto shouted, "c'mon Neji, Shikamaru and teme!"

None of the guys aside from Naruto really seemed to be into playing basketball right now. But nonetheless, the girls were going to play and they definitely did not want to be overshadowed by them.

"C'mon guys!" Tenten shouted, the girls ran after her to the court. They were much, much more enthusiastic than the guys had been.

"Okay! No jutsus alright!" Ino shouted, "otherwise thats not very fair!"

Tenten stood in the centre facing off against Naruto, Shikamaru and Ino were to their left, Sakura and Sasuke to the right and Hinata and Neji in the far back.

Sakura stared dead on at Sasuke, intaking what he had said to her earlier.

_"__I will not tolerate this kind of behavior, whether it be in private or in public. Understood?"_

Sakura clenched her fists just thinking about those words, he would insult her, would he now? She would show him just how much she had grown.

Tenten managed to get the ball and was now bouncing it around freely, she passed it to Hinata, who wasn't very good, had gotten it taken away by Naruto.

"He shoots.. he scores!" Naruto shouted, scoring a basket.

The ball was now with Ino, she was never really the sports type but nonetheless she wasn't too bad either, she dribbled the ball along the court and attempted to make a shot.

It was blocked by non other than her husband to be - Shikamaru.

"Thought you could score more shots than me, Ino?" Shikamaru said, attempting to steal the ball away from the blonde. She hugged the ball close to her and attempted to shift around so that he would not be able to steal it.

"Shikamaru... get away!" She said, hugging the ball tighter.

Shikamaru got closer to her and attempted to steal the ball out of her grasp, but the blonde was not letting go now matter how hard he tried. He finally managed to get a firm grip on the ball and was attempting to pull away from her, but she was pulling back with all her might as well.

'This is not going to work, clearly.. I'll have to think of something and fast.' Shikamaru thought to himself. 'Well... there's one thing.. he blushed thinking about what he was going to be doing to get the ball.

"Uh Ino...?" Shikamaru said, whilst trying to steal the ball. "Can you maybe pull your dress down?" He said, just loud enough so that only the pair could hear. Ino instinctively let go off the ball and began adjusting her dress.

After realizing that it was fine, she realized she had been duped. Shikamaru had taken the ball away from her and ran to the other side of the court, scoring a basket.

"Dammit Shikamaru!" Ino yelled, running back to her teams side. "They are so dead."

"You said it." Sakura growled, "it's so hard running around in this dress!"

"That's why Hinata and I changed into more comfortable clothing after the dinner ended." Tenten stated, "anyways, here's what we do.." she started, "I've noticed that Neji and Sasuke play defense and its Shikamaru and Naruto that have been scoring and stealing the ball!"

"So...?" Ino asked, a little bit clueless.

"So!" Tenten smacked her forehead, "let Shikamaru or Naruto get the ball, one of us distracts them, passes it to the other, we'll double team them and we'll score!"

"Tenten, we're losing zero to two. Our odds are horrible.. but nonetheless lets do it!" Sakura shouted, slapping her fist on her palm. "Hinata and Ino, you guys get the ball, pass it to us and we'll score!"

Tenten went to the tipoff again as did Naruto, this time it was Naruto who had gotten the ball. He passed it to Shikamaru, who was running over to the girl's side of the court, so that he could score.

Tenten made some motion to Ino to do something to get the ball. Ino smirked, for she knew exactly what she was going to do. It was time to get payback on the lazy ninja.

"Oh no you don't!" She shouted, blocking him as he tried to score. He shuffled around, attempting to pass to Naruto, but Naruto was being blocked by Hinata. Ino would make sure that what happened last time would not repeat, at least not on her end anyways.

"Shikamaru.. give me the ball!" She pouted, attempting to be cute. But she knew that wouldn't work on him, he continued trying to get her out of the way, so that he could score or pass to Naruto. "Shikamaruuu..." She whined, but he was unfazed.

'Okay then, plan B!' She thought to herself.

Ino attempted to grab the ball from him, but made no motion to pull it as he had been doing.

"What are you-"

But Shikamaru was cut off as something warm, something soft and something that smelled sweet was placed against his lips.

It was Ino, she had kissed him. He remained shocked and stunned, unable to do anything, for the last time he had kissed a girl it had been Temari. But somehow, this kiss felt different from his kisses with Temari. Temari had been rough, aggressive, he didn't complain, he had nothing against it. But Ino.. Ino felt soft, she felt more feminine, it made him want too-

"Got the ball!" Ino shouted to her teammates, grabbing the ball from Shikamaru as she had gotten him to lower his guard. She gave Shikamaru an evil grin and passed the ball over to Tenten who had passed it to Sakura.

"Uh.. nice tactics, Ino." Tenten mumbled, she was blushing a little bit, for she had never even had her first kiss yet. "Hopefully Sakura makes the shot!" She shouted, she was attempting to block Neji to keep him away from Sakura, and she was succeeding in doing so, it was just Sasuke that was left for her.

"You do realize that this will only give you guys one basket? We have already scored two." Neji stated to the brunette that was blocking him.

Tenten paid no mind to the Hyuuga as she was still a little annoyed with him from earlier, she looked over at Sakura.

"You can do it, Sakura!" Tenten shouted.

Sakura dribbled the ball, it was getting very hard in such a long gown. She didn't want to ruin it as it had belonged to Sasuke's mother, but she also didn't want the girls to lose.

"Hn. You'll never make it." The Uchiha said from the left of her, "your aim is way off."

Sakura furrowed her brows attempting to cut his voice out, 'you can do this Sakura, prove him wrong.'

She made it as close as she could and she got into the position to shoot.

"Ah!" She shouted, before shooting the ball.

It went higher.

And higher.

And then it went in the hoop..

And then through the ground.

Sakura had definitely let her emotions get the best of her, she had used too much chakra in that throw and the ball had most likely reached the center of the earth by now.

"Whoa.." Naruto gulped, he knew that face. She was best to be left alone or it would be very bad.

"Hinata, do you want me to walk you home?" Naruto asked the Hyuuga, Hinata blushed a deep red again, but nonetheless nodded. The two were off.

"Uh, I'm going to leave as well." Shikamaru mumbled, not bothering to wait for Ino.

"Shikamaru..?" Ino mumbled, 'did I do something?' she asked herself. She decided not to follow him for he didn't seem to be in a good mood, she bid farewell and went home with Neji and Tenten.

All that left was Sakura and Sasuke at the basketball court.

"Losing control of your emotions as always, I see." Sasuke said plainly, "hn."

Sakura clenched her fists, he began to turn away, probably expecting her to follow him like she always had.

But not this time.

"Sasuke." Sakura said, trying to sound as calm as possible. The entire anger of this day was attempting to explode right now, she clenched her fists. "I won't change who I am for you."

Sasuke stopped in his tracks, it seemed as if he were listening to her.

"That's not who I am, anymore." She growled, "I'm not that scared little girl that would always be fawning over you!"

He turned around to face her now, the wind was blowing a few stray leaves in their direction. Aside from the leaves, they were alone.

"You've changed, then?" He asked her, showing absolute no emotion. "Prove it to me."

"How is that?" She said.

In a swift motion he was in front of her.

Sakura was not expecting that, had lost her balance and was beginning to fall back.

But he caught her..

He always had..

He never let her fall..

Ever..

Sakura didn't know what was happening to her, but it was at that instant that every moment she had ever spent with Sasuke came back at her.

He caught her that time she was pinned to the tree with Gaara's sand

He saved her from Orochimaru

Even the night he had left,

He made sure to catch her

And place her on a bench.

How could a simple stumble bring back so many emotions and memories? How could a simple lose of balance make her so vulnerable and ignite a fire in her that she thought she had got rid of a long time ago.

It could have been the fall, the simple slip and the fact that he had caught her.

Or maybe it was the fact that he had placed his lips on top of hers and they were sharing a kiss.

* * *

**Soooo what did you think? **

**Liked it didn't like it , let me know ..**

**I feel like this chapter had a bit of OOC ness maybe ..**

**Also if you haven't noticed I'm not very good at NaruHina, their just there I don't actually like them much. SasuSaku and ShikaIno are the main focuses of this story. NejiTen I like too, they will be given time too just not as much :) **

**What else, What else..**

**Umm I'll most likely update on Wednesday. **

**Maybe sooner if I feel like it.**

**Review, Fav, Follow ~~~**

**-Marron B**


	4. Close To You

**Yupp once again I couldn't wait to update this story and updated sooner than I was going too haha.. I also got carried away and sort of made the chapter a little longer than I usually do. I also am sorry that the previous chapters were a bit short as stated in some of your reviews, I always think its so long when I'm writing in word and then when I paste it it turns out to be so short O_o.. **

**Also you guys, I'm conflicted about which pairing I should show more of and which less of :( I know its primarily SasuSaku and ShikaIno right now, but I also really like NejiTen and I kind of want to experiment some other pairings as well.. but idk :$ **

**One more thing! I wanted to clear up a few more things.. although this is set eight years after the events of Naruto and does not incorporate Naruto Shippuden in it, I still want to use a few things from Shippuden as you may notice as the story continues..  
**

**(Notably the Akatsuki because who doesn't love the akatsuki ;) )  
**

**Also I DONT OWN NARUTO!**

**Enjoy the chapter and please please tell me if anyone is OOC because I can never tell, thank you!**

* * *

She didn't know how long it lasted, for time had frozen when their lips made contact. She was shocked at first, but it was as if her body was moving on its own after that. Sakura placed one hand on the back of Sasuke's head, pulling him closer to her as she ruffled her hands through his hair. Her other hand was placed on his shoulder, he grabbed her roughly from the waist and used his other hand to raise her leg, so that he could position himself in between her.

It was magical, Sakura had forgotten every trace of anger she had developed for the Uchiha boy, all she could recall was the love she felt for him.

And then it stopped.

And she had wished it was her who had ended it, but it had been him.

"You say you have changed?" Sasuke said, letting go of her and turning to walk in the opposite direction.

That's when she realized it, the kiss was nothing more to him than a way to test her. He was seeing if she had truly changed, he was tricking her. The worst part of it all? She had fallen right into his trap.

She bit her lip from preventing the tears from falling, because no matter how much she trained or how much she aged, she knew that she would always be in love with him. With Sasuke Uchiha.

Before, when she used to be younger, she used to be proud of the fact that she loved Sasuke, she would flaunt it at every chance she got. But now she was ashamed of it, he had abandoned the village eight years ago, never once looking back, and she was still in love with him just as she had been then? Did all of her growth and training really matter if she was still weak to his touch? Just what good was she then.

Sakura decided to turn the other way, away from Sasuke. She did not want to be anywhere near him right now, she did not want him to see her cry. She felt weak, she felt vulnerable and violated, and he was the one to blame for that.

He walked in one direction and she walked in another.

* * *

Ino, Tenten and Neji had been walking home together. Well Neji was going to be a gentlemen and drop the two girls off at their respective homes, they were capable kunoichi but you never know.

To say it was awkward would be an understatement, Ino felt like a third wheel for one and the fact that nobody was talking just made it worse. She was too preoccupied in her own thoughts to notice that the pair were not speaking much to one another, it was Shikamaru who was occupying her thoughts.

Just why was he being so weird all of a sudden, all the other boys had decided to leave with their partners and he just left her there. It didn't take a genius to figure it out, Ino realized that it was the fact that she had kissed him.

'Oh my god, how stupid could I have been?' Ino mentally smacked her forehead.

"Um.. Neji, TenTen.. you guys go on ahead I have to go do something.." Ino said, before sprinting off in the opposite direction.

"That was strange." Neji said, Tenten didn't answer, she had been giving him the silent treatment all day, with a few exceptions and he had no idea why. He was giving her some space in the beginning, but even the Hyuuga was beginning to get a little bit irritated now.

Tenten stood for a moment and continued to walk on the path they were walking previously, it was really unlike her to act so overdramatic and moody, like a teenage girl. But she was just so annoyed with Neji all of a sudden, yet she still couldn't pinpoint why.

"Tenten." Neji said flatly, but the brown haired girl kept walking, choosing to ignore him. The Hyuuga was beginning to get annoyed with the girl now, had he done something he would understand, but he hadn't said anything that may have offended her. "I'm talk-"

"I heard you!" She shouted back, choosing not to turn around however. "Maybe I want to be alone?!" She yelled before running off.

* * *

Ino finally made it to the Nara household, all the lights were turned off except for one. The room on the top left had its light on and Ino knew that was Shikamaru's room. Ino carefully climbed the tree outside his room and jumped onto the roof that would lead her to his room window. She peered inside and noticed Shikamaru lying on his bed with his eyes closed.

'Must've passed out' Ino thought to herself, she slowly placed one foot inside the room through the window she was sneaking in through and then another. However she never got to place both feet on the ground, as something had pinned her against the nearest wall.

"Shikamaru!" Ino screamed.

"Ino?" He said, before lowering the kunai he had placed at her neck, "what the hell?"

When he let her go she breathed a sigh of relief.

"What are you doing here so late in the night?" He asked her suspiciously, "at this hour? For a girl like you to wander the streets alone?"

"Well you ran off, so I had no choice but to walk alone!" She lied, she didn't want to tell him that she was actually walking with Neji and Tenten just yet.

"Well you.." He trailed off, but never finished his sentence. "Never mind that, what are you doing here?"

"Shikamaru.. I came here to apologize." Ino said, placing one hand on his shoulder.

Shikamaru was never one to hold grudges or get angry, none of that stuff because it was simply a drag. In fact, even now he wasn't even angry with Ino, he was just stunned because..

because..

because the kiss had meant something to him, but it hadn't to her.

For her the kiss was simply a way to get what she wanted from him, the ball. But for him it was different, it wasn't as if it was his first kiss, nothing to do like that. It wasn't even that it made him fall in love with her. The kiss made him want to be possessive with Ino, it made him want to protect her, it made him want to kiss her again, it made him want to make sure that she only kissed **him **again. Could a kiss really have that much power on someone?

So Ino had realized her mistake then? She had realized that the kiss had meant something to him, even if he was still a little bit unclear on what that was.

"I shouldn't have kissed you like that.." Ino twirled her fingers around, in a motion similar to that of Hinata. She looked away from Shikamaru's gaze and blushed a faint pink. "I'm sorry.."

"Ino-"

"I know about Temari, I know that you had something with her." She started, "I know by kissing you it was totally unfair to her and rude and if you hate me I get i-"

"I don't hate you, Ino." He interrupted her, he wanted to tell her that wasn't what was bothering him. In fact, if anyone was being unfair to Temari it was him, he hadn't even told her yet of this new jutsu of the hokage's. Shikamaru wanted to tell Ino what was really bothering him, but he chose to brush it off. He would just be cool with her, it was just a kiss, it didn't have to mean anything now did it?

.. did it?

"Then why did you walk off?" Ino crossed her arms and snorted.

"Hm?" Shikamaru was caught a little bit off guard now, "well uh.." for somebody with an IQ over 200, he could not think of anything to save his life right now. "Well you see-"

"Nevermind! If all is forgiven then that's fine by me!" Ino grinned, "come here!" She exclaimed, before wrapping her arms around his neck and embracing him. "I'm glad we're good."

"... Yeah me too." Shikamaru said, closing his eyes and returning the hug. He didn't know what was happening to him, there was something in his belly that would churn each time he so much as touched Ino, it had been ever since the kiss.

Was Shikamaru beginning to feel something for his blonde teammate?

Never in a million years had he thought of Inoichi's daughter that way, she was always just a teammate or a best friend. Someone he could rely on to back him up in combat or help him out with problems.

But ever since she had kissed him it made him notice that Ino was in fact a girl. A very attractive girl.

"Um.. Shikamaru?" Ino said, "did you fall asleep or something?"

Oh crap! He hadn't noticed that he was still holding her and that they were still hugging, he let her go and apologized.

"I guess I should get going then." Ino gave him a smile, "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Wait, I'll drop you." He said instinctively, "It's late, I don't want anything to happen to you."

"What? Oh no, I'll be fine!" Ino started, "besides you can't fit through the window I'm pretty sure and if we were to go downstairs we would wake your parents." Ino explained, "I'll be fine!"

"Ino.." Shikamaru started, she had a point though. He really did not want to face the wrath of his mother, not at this hour and the window was indeed too small for him to crawl out of. There was one alternative though.

"I'll see-"

"Just spend the night here." Shikamaru stated, "I don't want anything happening to you at night, you never know on the streets."

"Hm?" Ino said, but then a wide grin formed on her face. "Sure! We haven't had a sleepover in ages!"

Shikamaru nodded and got up to turn off the lights, he was all ready for bed before Ino had came to visit him, he just forgot to turn off the lights and was simply just to lazy to turn them off.

"Um... Shikamaru?" Ino began, avoiding his gaze again and blushing. "There's only one bed here.. so um.."

"Oh, right.." He said, "It's fine I'll take the floor."

"Don't be stupid, I wouldn't do that to you." Ino answered him, "there's plenty of room on the bed for both of us!"

"But is that...?" He also blushed a little bit at the thought of sharing a bed with Ino.

"It's fine.. we're friends aren't we?" Ino said.

So Shikamaru walked over to the bed that Ino was already lying in, if it wasn't bad enough they were sleeping together, she was still dressed in that tight fitting red dress from earlier. Shikamaru got into a lying down position on the bed and turned to face away from her, 'just forget she's here' he thought to himself.

Ino was in a similar position, she was still dressed in that stupid dress! It kept riding up every time she moved, it was something that was not meant to sleep in. She also turned her back away from Shikamaru and tried to fall asleep as best as she could.

* * *

Morning came around and it wasn't until the sun was directly shining on her face that she was forced to wake up. She slowly opened her eyes and realized how sore she was, her surroundings were unfamiliar to her. Slowly and reluctantly she got up, she realized that she had fallen asleep on a park bench. Still clad in last nights clothes she slowly got up, remembering all of the events of the previous day.

"What am I going to do?" Sakura said to herself as she began walking. 'How am I going to handle this? I swore I would prove to Sasuke that I was stronger but he.. it's an entirely different story now.'

Sakura made it to the Uchiha District in a matter of ten minutes and slowly stepped inside, she opened the sliding door that led her to where she was staying with Sasuke. It was very, very quiet in this area of the village, for nobody resided in it. She was half expecting Sasuke to be sitting there waiting for her, but deep down she knew that he didn't care.

"Sakura." She heard a voice call from inside the master bedroom, there were boxes and bags scattered everywhere so it was hard for her to get inside the room, especially in this dress she was wearing.

Sakura finally made it to the room and there lay Sasuke on a giant king size bed, he was staring at the ceiling.

"I see you made it home then." He said simply.

"What's with the boxes?" Sakura asked him, choosing to ignore his statement. She would pretend like the events of yesterday had no effect on her, but she knew that was a lie. They both did.

"While you were out sleeping on the streets, there was work to be done." He answered her question, "tell me, Sakura.. why didn't you come home last night?"

'Think fast, Sakura..' she thought to herself.

"I was... I was more tired than I thought, I was on my way home and then I-"

"Lies." Sasuke interrupted her, "don't lie."

"Wha-"

"Tell me Sakura... how much can change in eight years?" He asked her.

"W-What..?" She spat, "a lot I guess..?"

"Exactly, however.. some things do not change. There was some things that can withstand the test of time."

"You mean like friendship.." Sakura mumbled, "who are you, anymore? You are not the Sasuke I remember at all."

"Sakura, if you do not understa-"

"No!" She shouted, interrupting him. "No, Sasuke! No more of that I don't understand crap because I have had it!" Sakura yelled, "I can't spend the rest of my life with you, if you never open up to me, if you never explain to me just what happened to you in these eight years that made you so cold and distant!"

It seemed as if Sakura had now perked up Sasuke's interest, for he was motioning for her to come sit next to him on the bed. He was dressed in all black and the back of his shirt bore the Uchiha crest. Sakura made those observations as she sat down next to him hesitantly.

"You want to know about these past eight years?" Sasuke asked her, she nodded. "Fine then, I'll tell you."

Sakura was a little bit taken aback, she was surprised that he was going to open up to her, and that too out of nowhere. Could she really trust him?

"I left the village, eight years prior to go train under Orochimaru." Sasuke started off, "in about three years after I had left, Orochimaru attempted to take over my body, but I destroyed him."

"W-What..? But I.." Sakura mumbled, she knew already that Sasuke had been the one to get rid of Orochimaru, Lady Tsunade had told them all that yesterday. But it had been five years since the snake was dead and nobody in the leaf knew of it. "How come no one knew?"

"Because as soon as I abandoned him, it was his subordinate Kabuto that began to run things making it appear as if he was still alive." Sasuke said, "I left to go in pursuit of my brother, for I was sure that I had become stronger."

Sakura noticed how sensitive Sasuke was when he mentioned his brother, he grinded his teeth, furrowed his brows and clenched his fists. _Sasuke.._ Sakura thought, he had always been plagued by that brother of his.

"Soon enough, I ran into Itachi."

"I-Itachi..?"

"We battled, I was no match for him.. even after all the training I had undergone I still could not defeat my brother." Sasuke growled, "it was beginning to get very frustrating to me, and I could only think of one thing I could do."

But Sakura had a feeling she already knew what that was, or a general idea of it.

"Over the years Sakura, I have been to many villages." Sasuke stated, "I learnt many things from each village."

"...You didn't just go to those villages to pass the time, did you?" Sakura furrowed her brows, she already knew what Sasuke was about to say next.

"I snuck into the hidden vaults of those villages and I mastered one forbidden jutsu from each village." He said in a monotone, "I learnt of five new jutsus from the village hidden in the sand, the village hidden in the mist, the village hidden in the rain, the village hidden in the rocks and the village hidden in the leaf."

"T-The leaf..?!" Sakura yelled, "but when?! How did you..?!"

"It was about five years ago, I came under disguise obviously."

Sakura felt a little bit disheartened by his words, so he had been here but he had never thought to see how they were doing. It hurt knowing that her former teammate did not care about her or Naruto.

"You never thought to meet us.." Sakura mumbled.

"It took me four years to master all of those jutsu's, but I did it." He continued on with his story, "as you can imagine now, if you add all that up, this would lead to the timeframe of a year ago. Then, the next thing I did was confront Itachi, we battled and I emerged victorious."

"You killed him?" Sakura whispered, did Sasuke accomplish the goal he was trying to achieve all his life.

Sasuke clenched his fists which Sakura assumed was in anger towards Itachi. "I found out some things when I battled him."

Sasuke looked very angry, he looked very sad and above all he looked very vulnerable. Sakura had never seen him like this before in her life, even before he had left the village. She didn't know if what he was claiming was true, but she couldn't help herself.

Before she knew what she was doing, she pulled Sasuke into a hug. Sakura let his head rest on her shoulder and she tightened her hold on him.

"Oh Sasuke.." She let out, running her hands through his hair. "I'm so sorry.."

Sasuke did not hug Sakura back, nor was she expecting him too. What surprised her above anything else was that he had not pushed her away, he let her hug him.

Just like yesterday, when Sasuke caught Sakura and she recalled all her memories she had with him when he caught her. It was the same thing that was happening to her now, only this time she recalled all the times she hugged him and he didn't so much as move.

The time at the chuunin exams, when she stopped him from transforming into a monster by the cursed seal.

When he had regained consciousness in the hospital after being attacked by Itachi.

And now of course.

* * *

"Mmmmm.. make it stop." A muffled voice was heard through the blanket, "go away..."

But the noise did not go away, so the ninja was forced to open her eyes and see what the heck the racket was. But what she expected when she opened her eyes was very ... interesting.

She was sprawled all over a bed, but it was definitely not her own bed. But aside from that there was someone next to her, it was a boy. But above all of that was the way they were both lying.

"Shit!" She whispered, their legs were intertwined and his arms were around her. If that wasn't bad enough her face was buried in his neck, if anyone were to walk in the room they would assume the worst and she was not going to let that happen.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

Ino raised her head to look at the source of the noise and noticed a small bird at the window with a piece of paper tied to its foot.

"Shikamaru!" Ino said, shaking the lazy ninja that was holding her in such a way she blushed a deep red. "Shikamaru!" She said again, this time much louder.

"Mmm? Mom?" A sleepy Shikamaru said, still having his eyes closed. "Gimme.. gimme five more minutes.."

"Shikamaru Nara, wake up!" Ino yelled in his ear, he definitely woke up that time.

Shikamaru slowly opened his eyes and blushed a shade similar to the color Ino had been when she first saw their position. He quickly removed his arms from around her, and got off the bed.

"There's a bird at the window." Ino said awkwardly, avoiding his gaze just like she always did in a awkward situation.

"Oh.." Shikamaru said, turning to the window and opening it to retrieve the message. He pet the bird on the head and it was off.

_To Shikamaru_

_The Hokage wishes to see you, come to the hokages building at 11 am sharp. _

_-Lady Tsunade_

_-PS: Be sure to bring Ino with you ;) _

Shikamaru stood mortified at the message from the hokage, did she know that Ino had slept over at his house? No, he was overreacting, she probably just meant to bring her with him because they were now partners. Phew.

"Shikamaru? What does it say?" Ino asked, still lying in his bed.

"It's from the hokage. She wants us to meet her at eleven." Shikamaru answered her question, he immediately looked away from the blonde. "Uh, Ino..?"

"Yes?"

"Can you uh.. change into something else.." Shikamaru said, blushing pink. She was still dressed in that red dress from before only it had ridden up much higher and he could see a lot more than before.

"Oh!" Ino exclaimed, covering herself and blushing. "Y-Yeah.. I'll stop by my house on the way there."

* * *

Just like the previous day all twelve ninja were gathered in the hokage's office.

Tsunade smirked, and examined those surrounding her. Tenten was standing next to Neji, but they didn't appear to be talking as both of them were looking the other way. Tenten had her arms crossed, so that definitely meant that she was the one that was angry in this situation. Next, she turned to Sakura and Sasuke, they seemed pleasant. Sakura kept glancing at Sasuke every now and then and he remained expressionless, though Sakura was standing rather close to him and he wasn't doing anything about it. Naruto and Hinata were smiling and chatting with one another, well Naruto was the one talking. Hinata was just laughing and smiling and giving occasional answers, they seemed the most happy out of everyone. Lastly, Shikamaru and Ino stood at the end, the were also avoiding each other's gaze, but unlike Neji and Tenten they didn't seem to be angry with one another, they were simply both faintly red and not staring each other in the eye. Tsunade assumed something that might've embarassed one of them had occured.

"Now." She started, after observing all of them. "It has been a full day since I told you about what is going to be taking place. There is more to this ancient practice than I had previously told you, yesterday."

"More to it?!" Naruto exclaimed, "like what, grandma?!"

"Since we are the one's who placed the jutsu on you, we will also be the ones who organize your respective weddings for you."

"Weddings?" Tenten said, "I thought that we were to work out our differences in a period of time and if we succeeded, we were to get married.."

"Well.. not exactly." Tsunade coughed, "we may have fibbed a little bit on that part.." She coughed again.

"What?!" Tenten shouted.

"Yeah.. there's only a little bit of a difference though. Basically, you are too pick any of the given wedding dates that I am going to give you.. and if you haven't worked things out by then, then we will find an alternative for you." Tsunade said.

"A bit of difference?! Really?!" Naruto shouted.

"So we are to choose a date. So then what if we don't work out our differences?" Neji asked, briefly glancing at Tenten.

"Then we'll find you somebody else to be paired with!" Tsunade gave a big grin, "here are the dates, please discuss this amongst yourselves and then let me know."

Tsunade passed out a sheet of paper to everyone in the room, they each split up amongst themselves.

* * *

"T-Theres a date from a year from today.. one from six months from today.. t-two months from today and a month from today.. w-what do you think Naruto?" Hinata asked her blonde crush. She had no problem with any of the dates for she loved Naruto with all her heart.

"Uhh..." Naruto placed a hand behind his head and closed his eyes and began thinking. He didn't have a problem with Hinata, she was attractive and nice. The problem was that he wasn't sure if he was in love with her just yet. He still had some feelings for another girl, the pinkette Sakura.

"N-Naruto?" Hinata asked again.

"Well Hinata.. I don't have a problem with any of the dates." Naruto gave her a big grin, "you?"

"M-Me?" Hinata said, "u-uhm.. I don't have a problem e-either."

* * *

"Well? Which date do you think is a good one?" Neji asked his teammate, she did not respond. She merely gave him a glare and turned around to walk away from him. He had just enough of this by now.

"Ah!" Tenten said.

Neji had grabbed her arm and forced her to look him in the eye, he had a tight grip on her so he was making sure that she was not going anywhere.

"I want you to tell me what the issue here is Tenten?" Neji asked her, furrowing his brows. "You have been ignoring me since yesterday morning and I want to know what the problem is."

Tenten looked away, she knew she was acting foolish, but she did not want to bring up the issue here.

"Tell me what I did so we can go back to being normal already." Neji said.

"Neji..." Tenten started, she knew she had to say something, she didn't want to keep doing this forever. She was never one to beat around the bush, she was straight to the point and she didn't normally act moody like this. "You said I'm a capable kunoichi."

Neji Hyuuga was a smart man, but this bewildered him to the core. Just what was Tenten saying? What was so wrong in what he said?

"I don't understand." He stated.

"You said that you were okay with marrying me because I'm a capable kunoichi."

"Yes I know that, but what is the wrong in that?" He asked her, carefully.

"Neji, I'm fine with marrying you, in fact, I'm more than fine with it. But it's for a different reason, and when you said you were fine with marrying me I thought you reciprocated that thought." Tenten said, she worded it carefully so that he wouldn't think any less of her.

"I don't quite get you, Tenten."

"Neji." Tenten took a deep breath, "I love you."

* * *

"So which date is to your liking?" Shikamaru asked the blonde next to him, it had been a little awkward between them since morning because of the whole dress incident, but they had gotten over it fairly quickly.

"Well I want a big luxurious wedding!" Ino exclaimed, "one and two months are way too soon, we'll go with either six months or a year!"

"Ugh, fine."

* * *

"Sasuke?" Sakura said to her husband to be, "do you mind which date it is?" She asked him. Ever since their conversation earlier, she had developed some sort of sympathy for the boy. He felt so alone and sad whilst she held him, she wanted to make sure that there was something she could do for him. Sasuke hadn't exactly hugged her back, but just the fact that he told her all of that was something. They didn't talk about the event that took place yesterday, but Sakura did notice a change in him.

"Actually, I do." He said.

"You do?" She raised a brow, a little bit shocked that she cared.

"Yes. I want to get married as soon as possible." Sasuke stated.

"You do?"

He nodded, then stared off into the sky. Sakura knew there was definitely something that he was not telling her, something he did not mention in his little story.

* * *

"So, has it been decided then?" Tsunade asked the group when they all returned in the room. "We will begin with Sasuke and Sakura."

"Yes milady.. we would like to take the date one month from now." Sakura smiled.

"Alright then, Sakura." Tsunade said, writing down their names next to the date on the piece of paper. "Shikamaru and Ino, you are next."

"We'll take one year from now." Ino chirped, she was obviously very excited for the wedding.

"Naruto and Hinata?" Tsunade asked, Naruto and Hinata exchanged some looks and Naruto whispered some things in her ear.

"We'll take two months from now, grandma!" He exclaimed, giving a thumbs up.

"Alright and that leaves Neji and Tenten with the date six months from now. Very well, I dismiss all of you then." Tsunade said, and they were all off.

* * *

**Yeah so I went a little bit psychotic and smashed a lot into this chapter.**

**I just hate it when stories take forever to take off and I just wanted to do that :$ **

**Ten may be a little OOC but I had to do that in order to speed their relationship up a little bit, and there is more to SasuSaku than is being let on so stay tuned because I know a lot of you may be confused. My fav couple is honestly ShikaIno, their so… just in each others spaces I love it O_o..**

**Next Chapp I'm thinking about bringing Temari into it and her reaction when she finds out about all of this, maybe expand a little more on Sasuke and reveal Neji's reaction to Tenten's love confession O_o..**

**Sakura also has some wedding planning to do ;) **

**Anyways like always Fave, Follow and Review :) **

**-Marron B **


	5. Torn between two

**Soo here I am with another chapter! Thank you for the wonderful reviews I got, but I want to clarify that although SasuSaku are listed as a main pairing for this story, it is ShikaIno that is the number one pairing, so most of the chapter will be focused on them. BUT.. SasuSaku is number two and will be in every chapter.. though maybe not as much..**

**Also you guys are probably confused on Sasuke's behaviour. Yes, so am I.. but its all for the purposes of the plot :) **

**Also… I have some sort of eye infection, so whilst I wrote this chapter, I was kind of OD on antibiotics plus only could see through one eye, so it might suck LOL **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Everyone existed the hokages office in various groups, the girls were walking together, from the looks of it they were going to go over to Hinata's house. Shikamaru walked on his own path as did Neji, and that left Naruto and Sasuke.

Sasuke turned around to leave towards his district, but Naruto grabbed his arm.

"Wait... Sasuke." Naruto started, "I want to speak with you." He said, "follow me."

* * *

The girls had arrived at Hinata's place, they all took off their shoes at the entrance, said hello to Hinata's mother and father and headed upstairs to Hinata's room.

"It's been ages since just the four of us hung out, hasn't it?" Ino asked, taking a seat on Hinata's bed and stretching. The four girls had gotten rather close over the years, but despite their friendship they rarely saw one another, for they were all busy with their respective lives.

"Yeah, it has. Six months at least, right?" Sakura said answering Ino's question. "Ten? Is something the matter? You seem awfully quiet." Sakura said all of a sudden, noticing Tenten who was unusually quiet, staring out the window.

"What? No, I'm fine. I'm just tired." Tenten gave them a smile, and continued looking out the window.

"A-Are you sure..? I sense that something is wrong.. perhaps b-brother-" Hinata started, but Tenten cut her off.

"Its nothing like that!" Tenten shouted, "well at least.."

"c'mon you can tell us, what's up?" Ino asked her, blowing a little bit of her bangs out of her face.

"I told Neji that I.." Tenten avoided the gaze of all the girls, and blushed. "I basically confessed to him.." she mumbled.

"No way!" Sakura gasped, "what do you mean confessed exactly?"

"I told him.. that I love him." Tenten mumbled, but all the girls had heard it. Sakura covered her mouth with her hands and gasped, Ino gave a big grin and Hinata had turned a little red thinking of Tenten liking her brother.

"So then... what did he say?" Ino asked, very excitedly.

Tenten sighed and sat on the bed.

"It was Neji, what did you expect?" She started.

_Flashback_

_"__I don't quite get you, Tenten." _

_"__Neji." Tenten took a deep breath, "I love you."_

_Tenten had turned very red by now and was blushing on a whole new level, she turned away from Neji and covered her mouth with her hands. The Hyuuga stood fairly still, still showing no response._

_"__N-Neji..?" Tenten finally said, "can you say something?" She asked, after he hadn't spoken for a few minutes after her confession._

_He lightly shook his head and began walking towards her, was he going to make a move, thought Tenten. She closed her eyes, half expecting him to hug her or kiss her, or anything. But when nothing happened, she opened her eyes and saw him leaving. Away from her._

"And that was basically it.. he walked out on me and we haven't spoken since." Tenten said, "I messed everything up, our friendship."

"No way, Tenten! Don't say that!" Ino said, scooting over to Tenten and patting her back. "Boys are just so dumb, I mean, c'mon the way you and Neji are, its completely different from normal comrades."

"Yeah!" Sakura added, "he may not realize it now Tenten, but I'm almost positive he reciprocates those feelings, he has too!"

Hinata also nodded.

"Thanks guys." Tenten gave them a smile, "you always cheer me up."

"Anytime!" Ino gave a big smile, "now... Sakura." Ino gave a mischievous smirk, turning her attention to the pinkette, who flinched a little bit.

"Y-Yeah?" She gulped.

"What's up with you and Sasuke, huh?" Ino stifled a laugh, "yesterday you two couldn't stand each other and now you're getting married in a month. How did you have a three-hundred and sixty change?"

"Yeah Sakura, spill the beans." Tenten added.

"Hm?" Sakura said, "what do you mean..? There is nothing.."

"Oh shut up, there is something but you aren't telling us." Ino crossed her arms over her chest.

"If I knew I would tell you, I swear!" Sakura shouted, "I don't know what it is... Sasuke just said we need to get married as soon as possible. I don't know what is up!"

"Oh Sakura, it must be so joyous being with him!" Ino said happily, so she still had a little bit of a teenaged crush on the boy.

"Erm.. sure.." Sakura gave a smile, putting her arm behind her back. 'I can't exactly tell them the truth of how he is, hopefully they don't see through my facade.' "So Ino, how is Shikamaru?" Sakura asked, changing the subject.

"What? Oh Shikamaru? He's great, we're great! He was a little bit weird at first about this whole thing, but you know, we're best friends and all, so it's not too bad." Ino said, blabbing all of the information.

"Do friends kiss each other like how you did yesterday?" Tenten snorted.

"Hey! That was just a in game maneuver I had to come up with!" Ino rolled her eyes, "its Shikamaru, he's like my best friend."

"Whatever you say.." Sakura gave her a knowing look, "And Hinata? How is Naruto?"

"N-Naruto?" Hinata repeated, turning a deep shade of red. "G-Great.. we have been getting along r-really well.."

"That's great, I'm glad everything is good." Sakura gave a smile.

* * *

Shikamaru walked through the streets of Konoha, sigh what a stressful morning it had been. But on the bright side, at least his wedding wasn't for another year, he could already see Ino freaking out about every little thing, it would be so troublesome.

"Shikamaru!" A voice called, he turned around and was met with a pair of arms flying around his neck.

"T-Temari..?!" He said a little bit shocked, he was met with a pair of teal eyes staring at him.

"I've missed you, handsome." She said, whispering into his ear. He loved the feel of Temari's touch, she was just so aggressive and straight to the point, he felt like she was genuinely the only woman for him. But after his kiss with Ino yesterday, he was beginning to question that.

"H-Hey.." He let out, blushing a little bit, he noticed that they were getting quite a few stares in the village. "Uh.. do you want to come to my place?" Shikamaru asked Temari, she nodded and let him go so they could walk properly.

Temari was not one to be so affectionate, but she hadn't seen her lover in quite a while now, she could not help herself.

"So what are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked her, he was trying to avoid looking at her for he didn't want to fall short of what he had to do today.

"Just had a little bit of free time on my hands, thought I'd come see you." Temari flashed him a grin, "what's up? What's new?"

"Oh nothing really." Shikamaru said, putting both his hands behind his head and looking up into the sky, 'more like everything' he thought to himself. They reached his house, he was glad that the house was empty, he did not want anybody to be home for this.

"Sooo.." Temari said, noticing that nobody was home as well. She wrapped her arms around Shikamaru from the back, and began pushing herself against the boy. "I've missed you..." She purred into his ear, that sent shivers down his spine, and he knew this had to stop or he would not be able to break the news to her.

"Temari loo-" but he was unable to finish as Temari had turned his face around to the side and planted a kiss on his lips, she swung him around so that they were now facing each other and deepened the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. When Shikamaru kissed Temari, he felt like he was at home, he felt comfortable with her. But it was different, definitely different when he kissed Ino. With Ino, he wanted more and he wanted to make sure that nobody touched her the way he did. So which did he like better?

Shikamaru wrapped his arms around the sandy blonde haired woman and kissed her harder, he could not resist. There was a difference with Temari and Ino and that was that he craved Ino's touch, but he loved Temari.

"Come.." Temari said, breaking away their kiss. "S-Shikamaru.. I'm ready.." She mumbled, before tugging him into the bedroom.

* * *

The girls had decided to go for a stroll around the village and were headed over to Ino's flower shop, it had been the blondes brilliant idea.

"So remind me again why we're going there?" Tenten asked, she was walking behind Sakura and Ino, next to Hinata.

"So Sakura can pick flowers for her wedding! I've assigned myself the duty of being her wedding planner!" Ino said, "trust me Sakura, this month is going to fly by so fast, you'll thank me later." Ino continued, they reached the flower shop, and Ino put her hand in her pocket to take out the key that would open the place. Her mother had gone on a lunch break, so Ino wanted to take this chance to show Sakura the flowers in peace. "Oh crap!" Ino mumbled.

"What is it?" Hinata asked her.

"I left the key at Shikamaru's place!" Ino slapped her forehead.

"Shikamaru's place?" Tenten said, raising an eyebrow. "What were you doing there?" She said slyly.

"I'll tell you later! I'll go get it quickly!" Ino said, before sprinting off in the direction of Shikamaru's place. "I'll be back in a flash!"

* * *

Shikamaru knew this was wrong and he wanted to stop it, he did but he couldn't. Temari had taken off his shirt, and they were now laying in his bed, passionately making out.

Control..

Shikamaru stop this..

It's unfair to both girls..

Stop..!

"Temari!" Shikamaru said, attempting to pull away from the girl. But she was trying to pull him back down on top of her, "w-wait! I need to talk to you.." He said, pulling away from her grasp fully. Shikamaru stood up, away from Temari and the bed.

"Hm? Can't it wait till later?"

"No.. you have to know this." He answered her.

"Fine, then." Temari said, sitting up with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Tell me."

"Temari.." Shikamaru started, "The hokage, set up a new jutsu."

"Okay..? And you are telling me, because..?"

"It involves me." Shikamaru sighed, he did not want to do this. He did not want to hurt Temari. "It was an old practice that the first and second hokage started, basically.. we were all paired up."

Temari did not say anything, she had no clue what was going to be thrown upon her.

"She paired us up.. and told us that we had reached the age of twenty. The jutsu came into effect the moment we had entered the room." Shikamaru paused again, "there were eight of us and we were all paired up with each other so that... so that we could marry."

"What?!" Temari shouted, standing up to face the lazy ninja. "And then..?!"

"If we did not follow through with the jutsu.. then our ninja abilities would be stripped of us." Shikamaru finished, he knew that she would be angry, but he would not see her pained expression. The pain he was causing her.

"Y-You.." Temari mumbled, it seemed as if she couldn't form any words right now. "So then... then what?!" She shouted, raising her voice.

"I have too.. end things between us." He clenched his fists, forcing himself to look at her. Tears were beginning to form in her eyes and she was biting her lip to hold them back, for she would never be caught dead crying in the presence of a man.

"S-So you.. just like that?!" Temari yelled, "say no..! Say you already have somebody!"

"I can't.. I would lose all my abilities."

"Y-Your abilities?!" Temari shouted, the tears were now flowing freely. "Is being a ninja more important than being with me?!"

"Temari.."

"And who is this girl anyways?!" Temari growled.

* * *

Ino had reached the Nara household and she had been knocking for quite some time, but nobody was coming to answer. She tried opening the door and luckily it opened, she crawled inside and assumed nobody was home for it was fairly empty. No problem, she would go upstairs retrieve the key and leave. Ino walked up the stairs and realized that she was actually not alone in the house, she could hear yelling coming from Shikamaru's room and realized it was the voice of a woman. The door had been left open, and Ino peered inside and saw Temari standing there yelling at Shikamaru, from what it looked like.

But that was not what shocked her, a heavy weight was in her stomach all of a sudden. Shikamaru was standing there looking all ruffled and he was shirtless, and Temari was ruffled looking as well with tears streaming down her eyes. It didn't take a genius to figure it out, Ino put two and two together.

'D-Did they..' She thought to herself, why would she even care? It wasn't as if she was dating Shikamaru, it didn't matter, now did it? But Ino felt bothered by the fact that Temari was here. It hurt her.

"You..?!" Temari shouted, Ino realized that they had noticed she was here and she stepped forward, inside the room. "Its her, isn't it?!" Temari growled.

"I-Ino..? What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked the lighter blonde, 'talk about bad timing' he thought to himself.

"I.. I came to get my key.. I left it here.. for the flower shop." Ino mumbled, she had always been kind of frightened of Temari. Her strength was scary, but she was intimidating as well.

"So you were here earlier then?!" Temari growled, she strode over to where Ino was and grabbed her by the collar and pushed her into a wall. "Who do you think you are?!"

"Temari!" Shikamaru shouted, rushing over to where Temari was. "She's not.. it's not like that!"

"I can fully well understand what's going on here, Shikamaru!" Temari yelled, she threw Ino at Shikamaru, who caught her but fell back in the process.

"Ah!" Ino shouted, falling on her husband to be. He helped her up and then pushed her behind him.

"Temari stop! What are you doing?!" Shikamaru shouted at the sand ninja.

"You cheated on me, Shikamaru! And with her?!" Temari growled, pointing at Ino. "H-How could you.." She suddenly covered her eyes with her hands and began sobbing. "Did I really mean nothing to you?"

"Temari.." Shikamaru said, slowly walking over to her, he placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.

Ino felt so awkward being here, she felt like she was just a third wheel, she didn't know why it had bothered her now all of a sudden. She always knew that Shikamaru and Temari had something going on, but she never imagined that she would walk in on them like this.

She saw her key on the table and shoved it into her pocket.

"I-I should go.." She mumbled, walking past Temari and Shikamaru so she could leave.

"Wait." Temari said to her, grabbing a hold of her arm.

Ino turned to face the sand shinobi, and the second she did, she regretted it. Temari landed a punch square on her jaw and it sent her flying back into the wall, where she collapsed against it.

"Ah!" She screamed, "what the hell?!" Ino shouted.

"If I ever see your face in front of me again, I'll kill you, got that?!" Temari shouted, "and as for you?" She turned to Shikamaru, "same goes for you!" Temari growled, before running out of the room and downstairs out of the house.

Ino examined where Temari had punched her, and wiped some blood off of her mouth. The spot she had punched her in was starting to swell up now, she slowly got up and began to walk out of the door.

"Ino, wait!" Shikamaru called, she stopped but did not turn around.

"W-What?" Ino asked him, her voice was clearly annoyed.

"I'm sorry... you didn't deserve that, she just-"

"You're sorry?!" Ino shouted, turning around to face him now. "Sorry for what? For sleeping with Temari while you're engaged to me?!" Ino shouted, okay she did not meant for it to come out like that, but she was very angry right now.

"What?!" Shikamaru shouted, "what the hell are you.." He walked towards her and grabbed both of her shoulders, "look.. what you walked in on.. that's between Temari and me, you have no right to-"

"I have no right too?!" Ino shouted, "how dare you.."

"Ino!" Shikamaru shouted, raising his voice. She flinched a little bit, she had never heard him raise his voice so loud, not to her. "We have been engaged since yesterday, with a deal that was thrust upon us!" He yelled, "I've been with Temari for so long now, how do you expect me to let her go overnight?!"

"Thats not what I meant!" Ino shouted back, attempting to free herself out of his grasp, but he was not budging. "You know very well that you're with me yet you still slept with her!"

"I did not sleep with her!" Shikamaru growled, "Ino, why are you so angry?! I'm sorry that she hit you like that, but-"

"I'm angry because...!" Ino started, but she realized she had nothing to say. Why was she angry? She didn't like seeing him with Temari like that, that was why. But how could she back that up?

"Ino, please." Shikamaru said, "I'm already annoyed, please don't add to my troubles." Shikamaru continued.

"That's all I am to you? A trouble.. someone who annoys you?" Ino said, a few tears were forming in her eyes.

"Ino, please just go." Shikamaru said, letting go of her and walking to the other side of the room.

Ino did as she was told, never looking back.

* * *

"Its been like a half hour, I really don't think she's coming back.." Sakura sighed, "I have to get going home anyways."

"Yeah, so do I." Tenten added.

"S-See you all another day then." Hinata said, the girls bid each other farewell and continued on their separate paths.

* * *

Sakura reached the Uchiha district, 'I wonder where Ino had gotten lost' Sakura thought to herself, 'probably ran into Shikamaru' she mentally snorted.

"Sasuke?" She called out throughout the house, "hm, guess he's not home then." Sakura said to herself, she grabbed a rice ball from the fridge and sat down at the dining table to start eating."

"So basically I convinced grandma Tsunade to promote me to a chuunin, because.."

"Hm?" Sakura said to herself, turning to the source of the voice, "that sounds like Naruto." She mumbled, "wonder who he's bragging to now."

Naruto had originally left the village for two and a half years and when he came back everybody else had been promoted to chuunin, with some exceptions to jounin. But Naruto was stuck at genin, he worked hard for a year and then was promoted to chuunin and then he proved himself worthy and was later promoted to jounin. Shikamaru, Naruto and Neji were those that were the only jounin. Sakura had stayed at chuunin and started working in the hospital on a more regular basis. Hinata had retired from the shinobi lifestyle completely and now was helping train those of the Hyuga clan that were still learning. Tenten was working hard to become a jounin and Ino was still a chuunin as well, though she didn't really do much other than work at her flower shop these days.

"I see then." Sasuke added.

"Sasuke?" Sakura mumbled, "so he was the one that Naruto was talking too.."

"Sakura?" Naruto said, spotting the pinkette sitting in the kitchen. "Getting the place set up I see?"

"Hm? Y-Yeah." Sakura mumbled, she looked around and noticed that there was indeed more furniture than before and many boxes too.

There was an awkward silence after that, this was the first time in eight years that team seven had been reunited. Naruto was admiring the house, whilst Sasuke seemed to be staring into the air and Sakura looked back and forth with the two.

"So you guys have some wedding planning to do, eh?" Naruto grinned, placing his hands behind his back.

"Yeah, I guess we do.." Sakura answered, she looked over at Sasuke. "I would have been fine with a later date but Sasuke-"

"Sakura, enough." Sasuke interrupted, "Naruto, if you don't mind, we have to take care of a few things.."

"Oh fine!" Naruto gave Sasuke a dirty look, and bid his farewells leaving the couple alone.

"Sasuke-"

"I know what you're going to ask." Sasuke interrupted her again, "and I have nothing to say."

"Why did you want to get married so fast?" Sakura asked, asking the question anyways. He didn't answer though, he began digging through a couple of boxes, trying to look for something.

"Here." He said, handing Sakura a box. "We have quite a lot of work ahead of us, Sakura."

"Hm? How so?"

"Our wedding is in a month, and look around, our house is not set at all." Sasuke stated, motioning around the house. "In that box are blueprints, I want to renovate this place."

"Renovate?" Sakura repeated, "but Sasuke.. where will we get the money?"

Sasuke smirked.

"I have been out of the village for eight years, Sakura. Do you not think I wouldn't possess any money with me?" He asked her.

"Oh.. of course.." Sakura gave a fake smile, 'I wonder just how much I can trust him, there is definitely something up. I must find out..' she thought to herself.

"Now, I've already made arrangements for the renovation. It will take one week to fully renovate this place."

"W-What sorts of changes are you planning on making?" A curious Sakura asked.

"I want to change the place completely." He began to clench his fists, "it has been well over a decade since anybody other than me has lived here. Both the inside and the outside will be completely changed, I want to incorporate a few more rooms." Sasuke explained to the pinkette.

"Umm... Sasuke? Can't all this wait till after the wedding.. I mean.. its so soon.." Sakura mumbled.

"Sakura, that is what you must take care of on your own. None of that stuff concerns me, do as you wish for the wedding." He stated, "I also don't want your parents to spend anything on the wedding. I will take care of all that, you make it as simple or as lavish as you wish."

"Yeah.. okay.." Sakura gave another fake smile and headed inside. 'Now I'm sure something is definitely up, how can Sasuke possess so much money? Why does he want to expand this place when there is already four bedrooms.. I should be happy.. I'm marrying Sasuke, he said the wedding is entirely up to me.. then why do I feel so uneasy?' She thought to herself going inside.

* * *

Shikamaru sat on his bed, he had finally finished cleaning up the mess that was made from the fight earlier. What a drag, how had he managed to upset two girls in one day was beyond him. He felt bad about Temari, he knew he shouldn't have kissed her right from the beginning, it wouldn't have escalated that far had he not done so. Temari.. that was probably the last time he would see her for a while, after both the girls stormed out on him, he rushed to find the sandy blonde haired ninja, he just wanted to see her face one last time and say he was sorry although he was sure it wouldn't make a difference. After not finding her, he assumed she had left the village and he was right when village guards informed him that she had left. Shikamaru did not even bother chasing her, for he knew it was pointless.

Then he thought to his baby blue eyed teammate, he understood why she was angry, she got attacked for absolutely no reason. But she had no right to tell him that he was cheating on her with Temari when they had only been engaged for a day. He always knew that Ino had a hot temper and jumped to conclusions, but this was absurd. Shikamaru rolled to his side, still thinking.

Perhaps he should go apologize to Ino, he did anger her and he knew that she would not be the one apologizing to him. The way she had tears in her eyes at the end, before she left was an image that would not leave him.

"Sigh... it's always me." Shikamaru said, getting up. He put on his jounin jacket and heading out of his room. "Mom, I'm going out!" He shouted, before leaving his house.

* * *

Ino had been on her way home after the incident at Shikamaru's house, but Chouji had spotted her on the way home, he noticed that she looked rather sad, so he nagged her until she confessed about what had happened.

When Ino told him of everything, Chouji was rather furious at his best friend for making his other best friend cry. Mind you, he had only heard Ino's point of view of the story. After Ino managed to stop Chouji from beating Shikamaru to a pulp, he dragged her to get some barbecue, because barbecue was something that always made him feel better when he was sad, so he assumed it would be the same for Ino.

They were currently sitting at their favorite barbecue restaurant in the leaf village, but Ino was really not into it. Chouji however was munching away.

"C'mon Ino.. eat!" Chouji said in between bites, "its really good!"

"Nah, I'm not really into it, Chouji.." Ino said.

"Hey!" Chouji called, "look who it is!" Chouji exclaimed to the other side of the restaurant.

Ino turned her head in the direction that Chouji was waving in, she expected their teammate to be there.

"Hello."

But it wasn't.

It was Sai.

Sai was a ninja that had been assigned to Team 7 a few times to fill in the gap that Sasuke left, he was rather good looking and resembled Sasuke. When he first met Ino, he had called her gorgeous and Ino had developed an infatuation with him for a little while. They went on a date or two over the years, but nothing became of it, as Ino realized that they didn't have much in common. Sai seemed to like her however, but he didn't want to push it as Ino had declined his request for a third date.

"Oh, hi Sai." Ino said, giving him a smile. He took a seat next to her and helped himself to some barbecue.

"What is new with you guys?" Sai asked them, smiling.

* * *

"She's not here?" Shikamaru asked.

"Afraid not." Mrs. Yamanaka told him, "she hasn't been home since morning, no idea where she is." She casually said.

"Really.." Shikamaru said.

"I believe she was heading towards the barbecue joint with Chouji." Inoichi called from the living room, "I ran into them on my way home."

"Thank you, sir!" Shikamaru shouted, before running off in the direction of the barbecue joint.

* * *

"Phew... I am stuuuuufffed!" Chouji grinned.

"Me too." Sai added.

"You two are slobs." Ino mumbled, "should we head out then?" She asked them, they nodded and the trio headed out the doors.

"I'm gonna head home now, I'll catch you guys later." Chouji gave them a smile, before heading in the left direction.

"I should get going home too." Ino said to Sai, "I'll see you later."

"Would you like me to walk you home?" Sai asked her.

"Hm? Oh yeah, sure if you want." Ino gave him a warm smile, and the duo began heading to the right.

It was kind of awkward at first, given their history but Sai would make a few remarks here and there and Ino would laugh, it was nice.

"So Ino, I was wondering.." Sai stopped in his tracks, he grabbed one of the blonde's hands and held it. "Ino, I want to.." he began blushing immensely. "Ino I.."

"Sai?" Ino said, raising a brow. What had gotten into the Sasuke look alike now, he was rather weird at times. But she didn't mind, at the end of the day he was a good friend.

"Uh.. I was gonna ask you if you wanted to er.. go out with me? I mean we haven't hung out in a while so.." Sai blushed.

"What?" Ino gasped, being caught a little off guard. "Um.." she mumbled.

"I just think we are too good of a match not to pass up." He said, placing his other hand on her cheek.

"S-Sai.." Ino began, she was also blushing a faint pink from being flattered so much.

"So is that a yes?" He asked her, inching a little bit closer to her.

"I believe it will have to be a no." A voice said from the shadows, Ino knew that voice all too well and her suspicions were correct, it was Shikamaru.

"Oh, Shikamaru.. I didn't see you there." Sai said to the shadow user, Shikamaru walked closer to the pair and stopped when he was right between them. "If you don't mind, Ino and I were-"

"Actually I do mind." Shikamaru stated, grabbing a hold of Ino's hand from Sai's grip and pulling her away from him. Just what the hell did she think she was doing with Sai?

Shikamaru walked in the front, dragging Ino with him, she was trying to get out of his grasp claiming she did not want to see him. They finally reached a nice quiet park and he let go of her hand.

"What is wrong with you, Shikamaru?!" Ino shouted, "what the heck was that?!"

"I should be the one asking you that." He said, giving her an angry stare. "Ino, I was coming over to your house to apologize to you." He paused, "your father told me you were at the barbecue with Chouji, so I was on my way forward. I did not expect to see you with Sai, more or less in such a position!"

"It's not what you think." Ino rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Sai isn't someone I think of that way.."

"So you're saying I should not jump to conclusions?" The lazy ninja asked the blonde, she nodded. "Then I could say the same for you, with Temari and myself."

Ino gasped, that little devil, he had worded it that way deliberately.

"Ino, I apologize for what Temari did to you." Shikamaru said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I also want to apologize for when I said you were annoying."

"Shikamaru.." Ino mumbled.

"But I won't apologize for being with Temari. She was an important part of my life, and we haven't been engaged for very long, so I needed some time to break up with her. I did not sleep with her, and I need you to trust me." He said, shaking her shoulders a bit.

"Shikamaru.. I.. I didn't mean to sound so psychotic.. I was just angry and that was the first thing that came to my mind and-"

"It's alright." He interrupted her, "I know you by now."

Ino gave him a grin and then jumped up onto the railing she had been leaning on previously so that she was sitting on it.

"You're a troublesome woman, you know that Ino?" Shikamaru placed his arms behind his head and sighed.

"Oh hush." Ino giggled, "you're just as troublesome."

The pair laughed together for quite a while, reminiscing of old memories. Ino shook her legs back and forth, attempting to kick Shikamaru, it always annoyed him when she did stuff like this, and she loved it.

* * *

It was getting very late now and Sakura and Sasuke had managed to sort the boxes into trash and stuff they needed. They would pack up what they needed and put it in a storage unit tomorrow, for they would have to stay elsewhere for a week. They had left one queen size bed in one of the rooms and that was it, everything else had been packed.

Sakura who was exhausted from doing so much work was lying on her back, Sasuke had also stopped to take a bit of a rest and was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I could just fall asleep right here and now." Sakura said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Did you really have to just leave one bed?" She blushed a little bit.

"It's fine, all we're going to do is sleep." Sasuke stated, moving into a lying down position adjacent to her.

"W-Wha..?! That's not what I meant.." Sakura mumbled, blushing a deeper red.

"Hn, really?" Sasuke gave a smirk, "Sakura you do know what rebuilding my clan means right?"

"Of course I do!" Sakura shouted, "it means you're going to use me as an object to get your goal, I know!" She blurted out, than instantly covered her mouth and blushed, realizing what she had said.

"I don't know where you get these assumptions from." Sasuke mumbled, lifting up the covers so that he could get inside.

"What do you mean assumptions?" Sakura raised a brow, also getting up so that she could get under the covers as well. "You said it yourself, you said Sakura you are nothing more than a way for me to rebuild my clan."

"Hn, I suppose I did then." He stated, Sakura raised her brow again and was very confused. She had no clue what he was talking about, was she just an object to him or not? Even the smallest hope that she wasn't would be something she would hold onto, it was pathetic, but it was just the way things were.

They had no lights in the house so they were staring into darkness for quite a while, Sakura was about to drift off into a deep sleep when she felt something brush up against her leg. Not being used to sleeping with somebody else, she instinctively kicked that said thing.

"Ah!" Sasuke growled, "what's your problem?!" He shouted at her.

"You're the one touching me!" Sakura shouted back.

"It was an accident, hn." The Uchiha mumbled, he shifted away from her and there was silence in between them again.

"Sasuke?"

"Hn."

"You've changed."

"So have you."

Then she closed her eyes and was going to drift off into a beautiful sleep, unbeknownst to him she had a grin on her face, for he had said that she had changed. That meant everything coming from him.

* * *

**I hated writing most of this -.- ShikaTema is not something I particularly like, but I didn't want to make it seem like Shikamaru forgot all about her and just began being attracted to Ino. I also wanted to emphasize the ShikaIno friendship a bit, and SasuSaku is soooo slow its killing me -.- but just because SasuSaku is getting married first, does not mean that they will be in love by then. :P **

**Next Chapter ..**

**-ShikaIno kiss for sure ;) **

**-SasuSaku moments **

**-Neji Tenten confrontation**

**-Like always, fav, follow, review.**

**-Let me know if you want more of a certain couple like always and enjoy!**

**-Praying this eye infection goes away TT_TT**

**-MarronB**


	6. Drink Drank Drunk

**Hey guys! I'm definitely a little bit late with this chapter but I was having some trouble, first I had that eye infection now I'm swarmed with midterms! But I managed to squeeze time in for this fic.. enjoy!**

**Also, I don't own Naruto.**

**P.S This is probably the OOCest chapter I will ever have LOL.**

* * *

Four days passed by since Shikamaru and Ino had fixed their dispute, Ino hadn't seen Shikamaru since that day and was beginning to miss the lazy ninja. He had been sent out of town on a mission the morning after and was due to come back today. Ino crouched down in her flower shop to water a few plants, she hummed a tune whilst doing so.

She wished to go on missions like she used too, she wanted to join Shikamaru and Chouji like she used too. But a few years back she had started realizing that she was the one who was inevitably slowing them down on every mission, she could definitely still defend herself but she had begun focusing more on the beauty of flowers rather than her genjutsu.

She felt more comfortable in the civilian life, but that didn't mean she wouldn't defend her village if the time came.

Ino continued watering the plants and humming a tune, too say that she wasn't counting down the time till Shikamaru was due to come back in the village was a lie.

'Three more hours' she thought to herself.

* * *

Sakura and Sasuke had been staying with Naruto for the past four days due to their house being renovated, Sakura still couldn't get over how filthy his one bedroom apartment was, how could one ninja make such a big mess.

"Naruto, thank god you're marrying Hinata in a month, this place is a mess!" Sakura stated, picking up an empty milk carton and throwing it in the trash.

"Sorry, Sakura." Naruto grinned, "yeah she's nice."

"She's nice?" Sasuke repeated.

"Yeah, she's nice." Naruto repeated Sasuke who was repeating him.

"That's all you have to say about her?" Sakura sighed, "c'mon, Hinata is so much more than nice!"

"I mean... I don't really know her." Naruto shrugged, "she's always just been around."

"Oh c'mon!" Sakura rolled her eyes, "Naruto, we've all been friends for practically our whole lives!"

"But Sakura!" Naruto retorted, "it's different with Hinata!"

"How so?" Sakura crossed her arms.

"Hinata and I.. we've never been very close, like I know she's a nice and kind girl.. but I mean that's it." Naruto started, "I spoke to her during the first chuunin exams we ever participated in, went on a few missions with her over the years, but that's practically it."

"I guess you're right." Sakura mumbled, "I think what we need is a party!" Sakura shouted, clapping her hands together.

"A party? Really?" Sasuke added, "what for?"

"For Naruto and Hinata!" She shouted, "I want them to get closer, their wedding is going to follow ours and I just want.. I want at least one couple happy." She mumbled the last part so that it was only audible to her.

"A party huh? Hmm.." Naruto said, placing a hand on his chin. "Sure, Sakura!"

"And just where is this party going to be held and paid for by whom?" Sasuke asked the pair, "you two haven't changed a bit." He muttered.

"Well Sasuke, you said that you would pay for whatever I wish-" Sakura started, but was interrupted by her fiancee.

"I said I would pay for our wedding, or anything related too it." Sasuke corrected Sakura, "don't get carried away."

"Well.. um.. what if I told people that this was our engagement party?" Sakura smiled, "to celebrate our engagement."

"Brilliant Sakura!" Naruto shouted happily, "you're the best!" He said, engulfing her in a hug. It threw her a little bit off balance but she caught herself just in time.

"Okay, where should we have it though? I mean the Uchiha compound is being renovated and this apartment is too small.." Sakura trailed off.

"How about a rental hall?!" Naruto asked, with far too much excitement in his voice. This party would mean that there would be loads and loads of different types of food.

"Yeah, that might work!" Sakura said, "okay, so it's decided. I'll go rent it and do the paperwork, and you guys buy the food and the booze and let everyone know, alright?!" Sakura said before sprinting out of the apartment and over to where you go to rent things.

"She's going to put us in charge of food and booze?" Sasuke raised a brow, "that was very out of character of her." He stated.

"I'll have you know that I've grown into a mature capable ninja that Sakura trusts." Naruto said with great pride in his voice, "let's go invite everybody and then go shopping!"

* * *

Neji Hyuuga spent no moment wasting his time. He was irritated with himself and somehow he had ended up on the issue of his lack of progress over the years. He had become a jounin five years ago and that was where he had stopped. At one point in his life, Neji had wanted to join the elite class of the Anbu, in order to do that you must first become a jounin and then apply into it. Neji didn't know how this had happened, but he had begun to slack off in his training and found himself not progressing any further. He had applied once for the Anbu at age seventeen and failed, they said he was close but not what they were looking for.

Neji growled, punching a punching bag, practicing his moves. How he had come to this topic, was beyond him. It had been at least three years since that incident had happened, but he was recalling it all over again. Feeling the same feeling of failure and disappointment that he had felt that day. But what had triggered it today?

Neji did not know what it was, but he felt so confused and disorientated with his life right now. Of course, he would never let it show for a shinobi never showed their emotions and he was Neji Hyuuga. At one point in his life, he had everything planned out; he was going to be a member of the anbu blackops by age nineteen, he would be engaged to another member of the Hyuuga clan of his age around twenty-two and probably be settled down with a family by thirty. So where had he gone wrong?

He growled again and sent a fierce blow at the punching bag, breaking it to bits. But why now? Why the hell was he feeling this and recalling everything now? Maybe it was the fact that Lee had come sprinting to his apartment, with some great news three days prior. Lee had been accepted into the Anbu Blackops, before Neji had. He was an exception, but nonetheless he was a member. Yes, that was one half of the cause of rage that Neji was in. He was happy for his friend, but he felt so weak now. As if he had failed.

The other half of his rage was his other teammate; how could Tenten confess such a thing to him? Neji was absolutely sure that Tenten was just getting caught up in all of this wedding fiasco, there was no way that she could love him. How could she love him? He always kept to himself, he was quiet and he got the job done. Was it a facade then? Nah, Tenten was not the type to be a fake person like that. Neji did not know what to do as of this moment, and he hated not having things in his control.

* * *

It was finally time for him to return, for Shikamaru to return back to the village from his mission. Ino, entrusted the responsibility of running the flower shop to her mother, threw off her apron and headed out of the shop in the direction of Shikamaru's place.

It took her about three minutes to get there, she knocked on the door and in a few moments, there he was right in front of her. He looked like he had only just got inside, Shikamaru had bags under his eyes, he was a little smelly and his hair was kind of messy. But Ino ignored all of those things and flashed him a grin and entered the house.

"Shikamaru!" She greeted before engulfing him into a hug. "Missed you!"

Shikamaru was tired, or he had been anyways. He was sent to the village hidden in the rain to investigate some grave robbers, it hadn't been anything too serious but nonetheless it had tired him out. But as soon as Ino engulfed him into a hug, all of that went away and he forgot he was exhausted.

"Ino.." Shikamaru mumbled, wrapping his arms around her waist. She was so soft, he loved that. He couldn't help but blush as he could feel her breasts rubbing against his chest, he tried to ignore the arousal he felt when he was with Ino. "So, what brings you here?" He said, breaking the contact and leading her to the living room where they took a seat on the couch.

"I knew you would be coming back today, and I wanted to see you." Ino grinned.

"I see then." He said. "So what's new?"

* * *

"So.. did you guys get everything done?" Sakura said to Naruto who looked like he was out of breath as he was panting heavily.

"Y-Yeah.." He said, "H-Here..!" He said, handing Sakura four brown bags with food inside of them.

"What happened to you?" Sakura asked, raising a brow. "And where is Sasuke?"

At the mention of Sasuke's name, Naruto furrowed his brows and growled.

"That damn teme! He ditched me! I had to carry all of this food from the store!" Naruto shouted, Sakura giggled but made sure to make sure it was discreet so Naruto wouldn't notice.

"Well I booked the rental hall for eight PM today, I'm assuming you invited everybody?" Sakura asked the boy.

"Yeah! I invited Neji, Shikamaru, Sai, Tenten, Ino, Chouji, Lee, Kiba, Shino, Hinata and you'll never guess what else, Sakura!" Naruto shouted, "Gaara, Temari and Kankuro were in town so I invited them as well!"

"Oh that's alright." Sakura said, "but isn't Gaara the kazekage, what's he doing here?"

"Beats me." Naruto shrugged, "even the kazekage needs a vacation."

"Yeah, I guess.." Sakura mumbled, "did you get the drinks?"

"Of course." Naruto winked, "so if everything is done, can I go Sakura?"

"Yeah, I'll see you at eight!"

"See you!"

* * *

He was never one to get attached to people, not since the incident that ended with him losing everyone that was dear to him. Sure, he had gotten quite attached to squad seven back in the early genin days, but those days were long gone. He had changed in these eight years and was definitely a different person now. The things he had witnessed, the things he had done, those were meant to be kept to himself, they were to be his burden and his burden alone. This was his final mission, the final task that he had to complete. Only then was he going to be free of his status.

Sasuke Uchiha, most guys wanted to be him and most girls wanted to be with him. But nobody knew what was going on inside of him most of the time, the burden he had to carry all on his own, he had to keep this a secret till the bitter end. Even if that meant he had to destroy those who got in his way, Sasuke would do it. It was for his brother, it was a task that he had to complete, for his brother would have wanted this.

Sasuke had finally gotten his revenge on his older brother for slaughtering his entire clan a few years prior. But what he had discovered continued to haunt him to this day, for it was not Itachi's decision to murder his clan, he had not done it out of his own free will. He did it because he loved this village so damn much, he did it because he wanted to destroy those who were plotting against his village. Even if they happened to be his best friends and family.

As Sasuke had lain the final blow on Itachi, he lay before him, dying right before his eyes and that was when Sasuke saw it. He saw those same eyes staring back at him that he had so longed to see again, it was the caring eyes of his older brother. As Itachi lay before him, dying he said only one thing to his brother.

"Sasuke, go back to the leaf village before its too late."

In his last ounce of strength, he flicked Sasuke on the forehead one last time and then succumbed to death. It didn't click with him right away but he knew that something was not right, somehow it seemed that his older brother had still cared about Sasuke, even after all those years.

A few things got in his way but regardless he ended up back at the leaf, but not as himself. He came under disguise, he would find out what really happened with the Uchiha Massacre so many years prior.

But Sasuke learnt of something that he was definitely not expecting, he had decided that he couldn't directly approach the hokage about it for she probably was unaware of it herself, as it was Hiruzen Sarutobi whose reign it was then. Sasuke decided to speak to the next two people who would definitely know something of it, so he went to them. The elders of Konoha.

It was not easy, and it took Sasuke many months to perfect the technique; but he had mastered the same time of hypnosis the Anbu Blackops used on people to get information, he waited till the right opportunity and he struck. Still under his disguise he put the elders under his hypnosis and he got the information he was looking for, what they told him absolutely disgusted him.

Itachi was given orders to slaughter his entire clan for they were plotting of overthrowing the entire village, it was under the direct orders of the elders, which Sasuke assumed meant the hokage knew everything of it at the time. It had enraged him no doubt, he was so angry that he could've killed the elders right there and then, but he did not do that for he didn't want to raise suspicion for his next move.

Now that was why he was here, he would fulfill this last wish for Itachi, he would do it no matter the cost.

* * *

It was a little over eight thirty and by now everybody that Naruto had invited to the party had shown up, some were engaged in conversation, some were drinking and others simply minding their own business or munching on snacks.

Sakura was dressed in a black halter top with a sleek black skirt and she had put her hair up in a ponytail, she had to look like she tried somewhat for it was her so called engagement party. She sighed at the current situation she was in.

"Ino, quit it!" Sakura yelled at the blonde that was currently crouching behind her.

"Sakura, stop moving! Make sure she doesn't see me.. why'd you even invite her?!" Ino shouted in a hushed whisper. The blonde had her hair down and was wearing a fuchsia full sleeve velvet dress that ended just above her knees, she looked rather stunning with her dress hugging her curves in all the right places.

"Ino! She won't do anything! And how was I supposed to know, not like you told me about what happened?!" Sakura shouted back, moving out of the way so that Ino was not behind her anymore. "I can't believe you hid such a thing from me!"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault! It was Shikamaru! He said to keep it a secret!"

"And since when do you keep secrets?!"

"Since-"

"What are you two bickering about now?" Tenten interrupted them, handing Ino and Sakura a drink, as she took a sip from her own drink.

"It's her! She invited Temari!" Ino crossed her arms.

"Oh my gosh, I didn't know, I'm sorry!" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Why, what's up with Temari?" Tenten asked.

"Erm.. never mind that, just if she clobbers me, make sure you guys have my back." Ino mumbled, before downing her drink. "How's Neji?"

"I wouldn't know, he seems so isolated lately, he isn't even talking to Lee properly." Tenten answered, "what am I going to do you guys?"

"Don't worry." Sakura winked, "by the end of this night, everything will be alright. I know it, just don't get too drunk."

"You too." Tenten said.

"Oh I don't drink that much, I'm the responsible one."

* * *

A half hour passed and the drinks were starting to have their effects on some of the ninjas.

"I cannot believe that we're sooooooooo strong and grown up now!" Ino exclaimed, she was probably amongst the most drunk of the ninja for she was one to drink her drinks rather quickly and in great numbers.

"I know! I mean just yesterday we were small little genin!" Naruto added, he was also amongst the most drunk. Naruto had been pre-drinking with Sasuke before anybody arrived, however unlike Sasuke he could not handle his liquor very well.

"Team seven reunited!" Sakura exclaimed, placing an arm around Naruto and Sasuke's necks and pulling them close together. "I am soo happy right now." She said to the two boys.

"So much for ms. responsible." Tenten muttered, she hadn't been able to get a proper buzz all night, she was too concerned with her fiancee.

"Do you two even drink?" Sasuke asked his teammates, raising a brow. Truth be told, he was feeling a little bit tipsy as well, but he would not let it show like these two.

"Yeah! Sakura and I used to drink... ALL THE TIME!" Naruto shouted into Sasuke's ear, "once time we were so drunk we-"

"Naruto!" A drunk Sakura said, covering his mouth. "Don't tell him THAT! He's my husband!"

"Sorry, Sakura.." Naruto said, "I'll go find Hinata!" He said, leaving the pair alone.

"So what was Naruto going to say, exactly?" Sasuke asked Sakura, truth be told the only thing alcohol did was make him a bit more bold, the sober version of him probably wouldn't have asked.

"Oh... nothing.." Sakura blushed, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Sakura, tell me." He said flatly, "come on.." He said, dragging her outside, "you need some fresh air."

The pair made their way to the outside of the rental hall, the cold air greeted them, it felt nice after being in the warmth of the hall for so long.

"Mhmm.." Sakura said, taking a deep breath, "I love air."

"Now tell me Sakura."

"Hm?" Sakura smirked and then hurriedly rushed over to the roof, she jumped on top of it. "Have to catch me first."

"Sakura, stop." Sasuke warned her, she stuck her tongue at him and continued running. Realizing that she wasn't going to stop, he made his way onto the roof, the alcohol was starting to kick in a lot more now, he would feel his movement being a little more off than usual, attempting to grab a hold of her arm, Sasuke lunged forward however he missed completely.

"Going to have to do better than that." Sakura giggled, still running around.

"Sakura!" Sasuke growled, running towards her again, he was beginning to get annoyed by her actions. "You aren't a child, stop it."

"Nah." She said, sticking her tongue out.

This continued for a good few minutes as Sakura was faster than Sasuke could comprehend in his drunk state, for pete's sake he was getting annoyed.

"Over here!" Sakura shouted from the ledge of the roof, "oh sasukeeeeee"

"You're going to fall. Don't blame me when you do." Sasuke stated, "come down and lets go back inside."

"I am not going to fall..." Sakura answered, then raised one foot to show him. "See-" but she couldn't finish her sentence, for she had lost her grip and was indeed falling towards the ground. "Ahh, Sasuke!" She screamed.

"Dammit!" He growled, in his drunk hazy state he quickly jumped down so that he could catch her and land on his feet.

The problem was that he had managed to catch her, only he had lost his footing and fallen on the ground with her on top of him.

"Oh Sasuke!" Sakura cried, wrapping her arms around him. "That was sooo scary, I thought I was going to die for sure!"

"You're beyond annoying." Sasuke growled, attempting to get up but she wouldn't budge.

"Do you still... hate me..?" She suddenly asked, still lying on top of him, she stared into his eyes, green met onyx.

"Sakura, stop this nonsense."

"You do.." She said, her lip quivering and a tear escaping her eye. "Sasuke... I love you and you hate me." She said, a few more tears escaping her eyes.

Sasuke who was also pretty drunk at this point could not comprehend what was going on anymore, what the fuck was she talking about, all he knew was that she was crying and he had to make her stop.

"No, Sakura." He answered her, placing his hands on her shoulders and pushing her off of him gently, he got up and then reached his hand out to her to help her up. "I don't hate you." Sasuke answered.

"But you don't love me.." Sakura said, "no matter! I'll make you love me!" She said, having a complete 360 mood change, before Sasuke could comprehend anything, the pinkette had lunged had him and tackled him to the ground, placing her lips on him and roughly kissing him.

Sasuke didn't know why he was kissing her or what the heck had just happened he just knew that he loved the feeling of kissing a girl. He had kissed his fair share of women but nothing compared to this, it felt so warm and loving and deep down he craved something like that. He could feel his hormones acting up, he hadn't done anything of this sort in so long, it was time.

Sasuke placed his hand on Sakura's thigh and began rubbing it gently, after a few more minutes of kissing and rubbing he threw off his shirt and made an attempt to take of her top as well, in a swift motion it lay on the ground away from the pair. Sasuke broke the kiss and began placing kisses down the pinkettes neck, making his way to her chest. He unclasped her bra and continued doing so.

"W-Wait.." Sakura said, regaining her composure for a second. "W-We can't.."

"We can." Sasuke corrected her, "come.." he said, pulling her in for a lust filled kiss and continuing where they left off.

* * *

Shikamaru was not somebody who drank too frequently, he was more of a man who liked too smoke a cigarette. He would have a drink once in a while, but nothing that would make him end up wasted.

Chouij sat beside him, Chouji was also somebody who didn't drink, he would rather take the opportunity to eat, drinking would just make him feel sick anyways. He did not like the feeling.

Then there was their female blonde teammate, she was definitely the one who would drink the most, she was always the one who got out of control drunk and either Shikamaru or Chouji would always be the ones who would end up taking care of her. It was a good thing they did too, or somebody could definitely take advantage of her.

The only problem was that Temari was here as well and he had seen a drink her hand for the majority of the time, so he was pretty sure that she was drunk by now. Shikamaru tried to avoid being anywhere near Ino for both his own safety and the blondes, which is why he gave Chouji the task of making sure she was alright.

"Shikaaaaamaruuu...!"

Shikamaru gulped at the sound of her voice, so then how was she supposed to keep her away from him? She was drunk and she would obviously try to get close to one of her friends, but what was he supposed to do? If Temari saw the two of them together she would definitely make sure that all hell broke loose, too top it off both of her brothers were here.

She threw her arms around his neck and along with that came her full weight which was placed on Shikamaru now. He stumbled a little bit at first as he had been caught off guard, but nonetheless he placed an arm around her waist and held her up.

"Ino, what are you doing?" He asked the girl.

"I haven't seen you in so many days Shikamaru, and you don't even want to talk to me." Ino pouted.

"What? No, I just-" He blushed and stammered with his words, he did not know what he could say to her right now. The topic of Temari seemed a little bit sensitive with her.

"Fine. If you won't pay attention to me, I'll find someone who will." Ino said with a hmph and removed her arms from his neck and marched off in the opposite direction.

"Hey! Wait!" He called, but sighed nonetheless, it was pointless to try and stop her now, she had made her mind up and even when she was sober she was stubborn, when she was drunk she was about ten times worse. It was alright though, for he assumed that Chouji would make sure nothing happened to her.

Shikamaru turned his attention to the other blonde that he had called his lover previously, she was standing in a corner of the room with one leg against the wall, she made eye contact with him but quickly looked away.

Shikamaru decided that four days had been enough time for her to calm down about what he had told her and decided to approach Temari.

"Hey." Shikamaru said, pressing his back to the wall like she was doing.

"Hi." She muttered, still looking away.

"I take it that you're still angry?" Shikamaru asked her.

"Hm? Oh, no I'm not." Temari answered, taking a sip of her drink. "I'm just trying to deal with the reality of all of this."

"Hm, yeah me too."

"Shikamaru.. can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"If.. If this whole jutsu thing didn't happen, would you have stayed with me?" Temari asked the boy. "Did you love me with all of your heart?"

Shikamaru stared into her teal eyes and thought long and hard. Had Temari asked him that a few weeks ago, he would have said of course and that he loved her and only her. But ever since he had been paired up with Ino, something new had sparked inside of him, something that he only felt when he looked at Ino. Shikamaru knew that he couldn't lie to the sandy blonde.

"No, Temari."

*SLAP*

The entire room went quiet and everybody turned their attention towards the pair, Temari had thrown her drink on the floor and had slapped Shikamaru straight across the face.

"You asshole!" She shouted with tears in her eyes.

"Tem-" But before he could get another word in she stormed out of the hall, it was a good thing that Kankuro was passed out drunk on the sofa and Gaara had disappeared to god knows where.

Shikamaru slumped down to the ground and felt his cheek which was now stinging with pain and had probably turned red. He had assumed Temari was fine, but he had been wrong as she was clearly still very angry.

"You alright?" Chouji asked, taking a seat next to him.

"Yeah.. Chouji, why do girls exist?" Shikamaru sighed, "so troublesome."

"You said it. Ino's been beyond annoying tonight, hasn't she?" Chouji added. "Uh no offense or anything.."

"What? Non taken, you're my best friend." Shikamaru started, "where is Ino anyways?" Shikamaru asked, looking around and noticing she was nowhere in sight.

"I thought.. wasn't she with you?"

"No... I thought you were with her.."

"Crap!" They both shouted, and quickly got up and rushed outside.

* * *

"Neji, is everything okay?" Tenten asked Neji in the near deserted hall now. The only other occupants were a passed out Kankuro, a passed out Kiba and Naruto and Hinata sitting in a corner chatting.

"Hm? Yes. Why do you ask?" The Hyuuga responded in a monotone, truth be told he was rather sulky lately, but he could not help himself. He was feeling like a failure, his father would definitely not have wanted a son who couldn't even become an anbu before somebody who couldn't even do ninjutsu.

"You seem so distant." Tenten answered, "is it because..?"

"What? Oh no, don't worry about it." Neji said, "I understand, we have been comrades for so long. Of course I care about you as a friend as well."

"O-Oh.. y-yeah.." Tenten mumbled, 'better just leave it at that or things may never get back to what they were.' "So, do you want to catch a movie tomorrow? We haven't hungout in a while."

"Oh yeah, sure."

* * *

Where the hell was she? Shikamaru and Chouji had split up and gone two separate ways, she couldn't have gone very far but she was nowhere in sight.

Shikamaru heard a brief ruffle in the bushes and quickly ran towards the source of the noise.

"Ino?!" He shouted, but the sight before him made him wish he hadn't stumbled upon this. "Oh.. it's you guys.. sorry.." Shikamaru muttered and headed in the opposite direction.

It had been Sasuke who was on top of Sakura in a very interesting position and the pair had both been unclothed. Shikamaru shuddered at the thought, then just where was Ino and who was she with?

"Mmmhmmm... no... I can't.." Shikamaru heard a voice, he knew right away it was her and headed towards the direction.

"Ino!" He shouted, "w-what the hell?"

"Shikamaru!" Ino yelled and threw herself into his arms. "Tell him to stop! I keep telling him no, but he won't..."

Shikamaru looked at the blonde then at the man who stood before them, it was Sai.

"What do you think you're doing?" Shikamaru said coldly to the boy, "didn't I tell you already to back off?"

"Shikamaru, you need to chill." Sai stated, "Ino and I have more history..."

"Stay away from her." Shikamaru growled, before grabbing a hold of the blondes hand and pulling her away in the opposite direction.

"Mm.. thanks.." She said, wrapping her arms around his waist as they walked, it looked rather awkward but fortunately there weren't many people on the streets at this time.

"Ino, you are way too troublesome. Why do you drink so much when you can't handle it?" Shikamaru said to the blonde with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "let's get you home." He stated, before heading towards her house.

"Sorry.." She mumbled, they walked to her house in silent and once they got there the pair made their way upstairs to Ino's bedroom, once she was inside and safe Shikamaru turned to leave.

"I'll be going now."

"W-Wait!" She called, she shifted over on the bed and motioned for him to sit. "I-I.. I want to apologize."

"Ino, we'll talk tom-"

"No! I'm sorry! I'm always such a burden on you..." Ino said, hugging her knees.

"You're drunk, we'll talk tomorrow." Shikamaru stated and made a motion to get up again.

"No, wait!" Ino said, grabbing a hold of his arm. She sat on her knees so that she was at the same height as him, she placed her arms around his neck and engulfed him into a embrace.

"What are you..?" Shikamaru asked her, unsure of where to put his hands. God, did she always have to wear such tight clothing.

"Thank you, for always looking out for me. I don't know what I would do without you." She said, hugging him tighter.

"Ino, don't worry about it." Shikamaru said, placing his hands on her back. "You're my friend, it's my job."

"I think I.." She started but then paused, she pulled away from his embrace but kept her hands on his shoulders, "I may be falling for you." Ino said before leaning in and placing a kiss on his lips.

Shikamaru was stunned, for the last time they had kissed she had done it on a whim, trying to win a basketball game. But this time, it felt more real, he didn't know what to do though, he loved the feeling of when she came near him, but did he love her?

For the time being, he knew what he had too do. Shikamaru placed his hands around her waist and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. She let herself fall on the bed and she pulled him down with her, he was now towering over her, still not breaking the kiss.

"Stay here.." Ino mumbled, in between breaths.

"Ino.." Shikamaru started, it took him a few attempts but he finally broke away from her kiss, her hands were now tugging at his shirt, but he knew he had to stop it right here. "Ino, I can't take advantage of a drunk girl."

"B-But.. I'm not drunk!" She answered.

"Tomorrow. We'll talk tomorrow." Shikamaru stated, before leaving her room and her house.

* * *

**Loved it? Hated it?**

**So I know Sakura and Ino were both very OOC and probably Sasuke too, but I didn't know how to write them drunk, so I thought I could make them a little OOC… aside from that I suck at NejiTen and NaruHina hhahaah..**

**SasuSaku finally did the deed… a lustfilled one at that. **

**Tell me what you thought, probably will update soon!**

**-MarronB**


	7. Another Mission

**Hey guys**

**I'm slowly losing inspiration for this story haha if you guys really want me to continue I will but I might discontinue this.**

**So this chapter absolutely sucks. I was too tired to make it any longer, but I felt bad because I haven't updated in a while. Haha, I'll make the next chapter twice as long to make up for it. **

**Check out my other story the bachelorette ! It's about Sakura and a bunch of guys competing for her affection!**

**Anyways Enjoy!**

* * *

The next morning came and for someone who had drank the amount she had, she wished it hadn't. Her head ached, she felt like vomiting and she was extremely dehydrated, reluctantly she opened her eyes and realized she had no clue where the hell she was. Sitting up quickly in a upright position proved to be a dear mistake for her as she regretted it instantly.

"Awake?" Another voice sounded, it was so painful to hear someone talk and his movements were also making her head ache, she just wanted it all to stop, she covered her head with her hands and closed her eyes.

"Go away.." She muttered.

"Here, drink this." She opened her eyes and saw that he was carrying a cup with him with some sort of strange liquid inside, she hesitantly took a sniff of it and then pushed it away.

"No, thanks."

"Just drink it, you'll feel a lot better."

She slowly took a sip and forced it all down, her headache was already starting to disappear.

"What was that?" She asked innocently.

"Snake venom." He answered, her eyes almost fell out of their sockets and made a disgusted expression. "I'm joking, relax."

"That wasn't funny!" She started, "so what happened last night? I don't remember anything except talking to Ino about her Temari situation. Everything was a blur after that."

"Sakura, you were wasted." He stated.

"I-I was, weren't you Sasuke?" Sakura asked her fiancee, blushing a little bit at the unknownity of what she may have done.

"Truthfully, yes." He stated, "but I do recall you running around on the roof like a lunatic and falling."

"Oh goodness, well we're both in one piece so I don't think anything too horrible could have happened." Sakura said chuckling, trying to brush off the topic. "I'm going to shower, where is Naruto?"

"Dunno, he was gone when I woke up this morning." Sasuke answered, turning around to leave the room. Truth be told he did remember what had occurred last night, he was drunk but not wasted like Sakura, however he thought that this was not the best time to tell her.

It was a good thing that Sasuke was the first one to wake up early in the morning, otherwise somebody would have seen their position in the bushes or Sakura may have woken up, he had quickly covered them both up and arrived at Naruto's apartment. Sakura was sleeping the entire time.

Besides how much would Sakura care anyways, he was her husband to be in a month, besides he doubted he was Sakura's first. She was a fair looking woman after all.

* * *

Too say Ino looked horrible would probably be an understatement, she had bags under her eyes for she didn't get much sleep last night, her hair was in a messy ponytail and she had no makeup on. She wasn't even sure if her outfit was in check, she was too hungover to give a shit. It was so early in the morning but she had to open up the flower shop for it was her day to do that, coffee cup in hand, Ino massaged her temples and swore she would never drink again.

"This is such a drag." She mumbled, "great now I'm starting to sound like Shikamaru."

* * *

This happened way too often for his liking. He had just gotten back from a mission yesterday and here he was again summoned into the hokages office, not even ten am yet. He tried to hide his annoyance because it was a mission and he was a ninja after all, but he couldn't help it. Could Shikamaru not sleep in for one day?

"Sorry Shikamaru, I realize that you must be tired having only arrived yesterday from your previous mission. I wouldn't have summoned you had it not been urgent." Tsunade said, apparently reading his mind.

"No lady Tsunade, I don't mind." Shikamaru lied, "what's up?"

"There have been reports of some strange activity in the wind country, near the sand village." Tsunade stated, "as you may already know the Kazekage had been away from the village for a few days, an enemy found out and there was a huge ruckus over there last night. We were informed right away and the three sand siblings headed off last night, we received another letter from them this morning." She paused, waiting for Shikamaru to take everything in.

"Yes?"

"Four ninja were discovered dead and three have been declared missing."

"Uh, lady Tsunade? I don't want to sound inconsiderate or anything but stuff like that happens all the time, I'm sure it's nothing they can't handle, what's this got to do with us?" Shikamaru asked cluelessly, he was still tired and didn't really think about why.

"They think that the Akatsuki is involved."

"Akatsuki?"

"The criminal organization that is very powerful." Tsunade bit her finger, "they have various clues to believe that they are involved and have requested aid from the leaf village."

"Oh okay, makes sense then."

"So here is your mission, Shikamaru. Assemble a four or five man squad and set out to the sand village, you should get there in about two days at the fastest. When you get there follow any orders the KazeKage gives you in terms of what you should do. The Akatsuki is a threat to everyone, try to capture them if you can, but if not you may kill them. Am I clear Shikamaru?"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade." Shikamaru started, "but who should I ask for the mission?"

"Many of the jounin of the village are already out on various missions, those that are free in the village right now that may be capable for this mission are Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuga, Tenten and perhaps Sai?"

Shikamaru clenched his fist at the mention of that last name.

"Assemble your squad and you are too leave in about three hours. Only take those who you think are capable for this could prove to be a dangerous mission."

"Yes Lady Tsunade." Shikamaru said before leaving the room, he put his hands behind his head and sighed. 'Who am I going to assemble for this squad? I guess I'll ask Naruto.'

* * *

"Sure of course I'll come!" Naruto exclaimed, giving a grin. "I'm taking a few weeks off from missions, but I'll make an exception for this!"

"Why's that?" Shikamaru asked lazily.

"Well Hinata's parents want this wedding to be a grand affair, so I'm off from missions until then."

"Oh fair enough." He added.

Shikamaru continued down his walk in the streets of Konoha, so far he had only asked Naruto and Naruto was just one ninja, he knew Naruto wouldn't pass the chance for a mission like this.

"Shikamaru...!" He heard a voice call him, he turned around and saw pink hair bouncing up and down. "Hey!"

"Oh hey, Sakura." Shikamaru greeted.

"What are you doing up so early? It's so uncharacteristic of you." Sakura giggled, "visiting Ino? She's been complaining all morning so I'm going over to the flower shop to see her now."

"Actually, I've been assigned a mission by Lady Tsunade and am trying to assemble a squad." Shikamaru started, "Ino's at the flower shop? Mind if I join, she'll probably want to know that I'm assigned another mission."

"Oh okay, what's the mission?" Sakura said, whilst starting to walk towards the flower shop with Shikamaru.

"There's some weird crap going on in the sand village, we're being sent to investigate it, apparently the Akatsuki are involved." Shikamaru answered.

"Akatsuki?" Sakura repeated, "sounds dangerous. Who's on the squad so far?"

"Haven't found anyone yet, asked Naruto and he's busy." Shikamaru said, "wait a minute Sakura, are you available? I could definitely use a medic on the squad."

"Hm? Me?" Sakura said, "yeah sure, I'm available. Not like I'm doing anything here anyways, I'm supposed to be planning my wedding but I've been procrastinating with that."

"Great, at least that's one person down." Shikamaru stated, as they arrived at the flower shop. "Where is Ino?" He asked, looking around and seeing no feisty blonde.

"Over there.." Sakura sighed, Ino was leaning against the wall behind the counter, looking very tired. "Hello Ino."

"Eh..?" Ino said grudgingly, "oh hey Sakura."

"I brought you something." Sakura said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a flask. "Drink it, your hangover will go away instantly, I was in the same state as you."

"Kay.." Ino said without complaint and chugged the drink down, not giving a shit about its taste.

"Uh.." Shikamaru started, no one had noticed him yet. "Ino, have a minute?"

"Hm? Oh hey Shikamaru! Didn't see you there!" Ino said in her normal upbeat voice, "your up early."

"Yeah, that's kinda why I'm here."

"Hm?"

"I've been assigned another mission."

"What...?!" Ino whined, "but you just got back."

"Yeah, but it's urgent. There's reports of the Akatsuki in the sand village."

"Sand Village?" Ino repeated, 'oh god, he's going to be with Temari!'

"Oh brother.." Sakura said, pretty much reading Ino's mind.

"Yeah, I'm assembling a squad now, so far I've only recruited Sakura here." Shikamaru stated, "no on-"

"Take me with you!" Ino exclaimed, interrupting him. Sakura and Shikamaru both gasped, making sure they heard her right. "I want to go!"

"Ino, you?" Shikamaru said, "it could be very dangerous."

"You're acting like I'm some weakling." Ino pouted, "I can take care of myself."

"I know that, I just mean... well, you haven't been on a mission in a while and I just thought-"

"You just thought I was weak, right?" Ino crossed her arms and 'hmphed'.

"Ino.." Sakura started, "are you sure?"

"Sakura, don't get me started." Ino said, "I'm fine okay, I was going to try and be a member of the interrogation squad."

"But.. I mean that was over two years ago, you haven't really been on a mission since.. I don't know if Lady Tsunade.." Sakura trailed off, "what I mean is, it could prove to be very dangerous."

"Sakura I'll be fine, I promise. You guys won't have to take care of me, I know how to fight and defend myself." Ino rambled.

"Well seeing as there's no way out of this." Shikamaru sighed, "fine you're on the squad."

"Yay!" Ino chirped, "I'll call mom and tell her to run the shop while I go pack. Where and when are we meeting?"

"Front gate in two hours." Shikamaru started, "Sakura could you do me a favor? Could you ask Sasuke if he would accompany us on this mission? I'll try to find another whilst then."

"Sure."

"See you all in two hours then."

* * *

Two hours passed by, those at the front gate so far were Shikamaru and Ino.

"Wow it is not like Sakura to be late." Ino stated.

"There's still a little time left, we just got here early." Shikamaru said.

"This is kind of exciting in a way, I mean we can spend some time together." Ino grinned.

"Ino, just out of curiosity do you recall anything from last night?"

"Hm? Oh um.. truth be told, not really." Ino blushed, "did I do something?"

"What?" Shikamaru said, caught a little off guard. He called her confession to him about how she may be falling for him, it was probably just a drunken lie right? Right. "Oh no, I was just uh wondering."

"Well okay then." Ino said, raising a brow. "Where is that forehead girl?!"

"I'm here you pig!" Sakura's voice called, Ino looked to her left and saw Sakura walking towards them with Sasuke, he had his hands dug into his pockets, looking as cool as ever.

"Well are we waiting for anyone else?" Ino asked Shikamaru.

"Yes, one more." Shikamaru answered, "its Naruto."

"Shikamaru!" Naruto called, "sorry I'm late I ran into-"

"Be quiet Naruto!" Sakura growled, "we're already late as it is."

"We're not doing so bad actually, Sakura." Shikamaru started, "now just to refresh you all, just in case you may not remember. Our mission is to aid the sand village, we will follow any orders given to us by the kazekage. Lady Tsunade has informed me that if we are to run into any Akatsuki members to capture them or kill them if that is not possible." Shikamaru paused to catch a breath, "it will probably take us two days to get there. We'll try to get there as fast as we can, we'll take a break every six hours and we'll stop to sleep in twelve hours. Is that clear?"

"Yup!" Ino said enthusiastically, "let's go!' She said and the five of them jumped off into the direction they were headed.

Shikamaru lead the way with Naruto behind him, then Sasuke and finally Sakura and Ino. Truth be told Ino was not the one dragging Sakura down, but rather Sakura hadn't been feeling well since morning, Ino had noticed and slowed down with her.

* * *

At least seven hours had passed by and it was late in the evening now, most likely six or seven o clock.

"Psst, Sakura.." Ino whispered to Sakura whilst jumping from tree to tree, "I thought we were going to take a break."

"Hm? I thought so too.. I guess Shikamaru forgot, why not just ask him?" Sakura asked.

"Pfft, I'm not asking him." Ino snorted, "obviously he's too deep in thought about that Temari, why should I ask him?"

"Ino." Sakura sighed, "I'm getting quite tired too and need a break. Should I ask Shikamaru?"

Ino didn't respond, Sakura sighed and fastened her pace a little bit so she was now even with Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru? Mind if we stop for a little bit, we've been going at it for seven hours straight. I'm beginning to get a little bit tired." Sakura stated.

"What?" Shikamaru said in a monotone, "oh sorry Sakura, yeah we'll stop." Shikamaru said, motioning to the others. He knew they were to take a break but he wanted to get to the sand at the fastest, he wanted to help Temari and her brothers, it was the least he could do for them now. It wasn't like Shikamaru to push his teammates and get where they were going as fast as humanely possible, no that was not his style that was more Naruto. But Shikamaru didn't know, he just wanted to get there already.

"We're stopping?" Naruto asked, jumping down onto the ground, everyone else followed suite.

"Yeah, we'll camp here for the night and resume our journey in the morning." Shikamaru stated, "should we split the jobs then?"

"Hn." Sasuke said.

"Naruto and Sakura, can you two find some food for us? Sasuke, light us a fire and Ino help me set up camp." Shikamaru ordered, everyone nodded and headed off to do their various jobs.

Ino laid out the sleeping bags on the ground whilst Shikamaru did some other stuff that Ino was not paying attention too, she snuck a few glances at him but chose not to say anything for she knew that a blonde was preoccupying his thoughts, but it wasn't her. Why was she getting so annoyed anyways?

"Hm? Uh Shikamaru?" Ino said hesitantly, she didn't want to speak with him but she had no choice now, for there was a bit of an issue.

"Yes, Ino?"

"There's only four sleeping bags.." Ino mumbled, "and there's five of us."

"What? Are you sure?" He said, walking over to where the blonde stood.

"Yeah, I can count you know." Ino said in an angrier tone that she meant too, he looked and her and raised a brow but decided not to pursue the issue.

"Well.." Shikamaru trailed off, "we'll figure it out."

In about five minutes, Sasuke came over to where they were and told them that the fire was ready and lit and then ten minutes after that, Naruto and Sakura showed up with at least a dozen medium sized fish. Naruto appeared to be soaked to the core, with Sakura giggling behind him.

"Why is it always me?" Naruto muttered, glaring into Sasuke's direction, Sasuke smirked knowing well that Naruto was referring to the incident at the chuunin exams where Naruto was in a similar situation.

"We have a bit of an issue." Shikamaru said in a monotone, placing his arms behind his head in the manner he so often did. "Someone forgot to bring a sleeping bag."

"What? Wasn't me, I packed one for myself, one for Naruto and one for Sasuke." Sakura stated matter of factly. "Must've been one of you two."

"One of us?!" Ino glared in Sakura's direction, "I'll have you know that I made a list of things to pack and bring on this trip: toothbrush, extra clothing, kunai, shuriken, paper bombs, my makeup, a few products..." Ino trailed off listing a number of items.

"But.. a sleeping bag?" Sakura added.

"Erm..." Ino placed a finger on her chin, "I may have... left that part out." She blushed a little bit.

"Hm, well better figure something out then, it's going to be a cold night." Sakura gave an evil grin and began toasting some of the fish above the fire. "But for now let's eat, I'm starving!" She said in a manner similar to Naruto.

The five of them sat around the fire and ate their respective number of fish. Sakura had eaten a total of two fish, same with Ino, Shikamaru at three, Sasuke at four and Naruto at five.

"We'll continue our mission in the morning, everyone make sure your up bright and early. I want to reach the sand village by tomorrow evening or the following morning at the latest." Shikamaru said, before turning to walk in the opposite way of where they were camped out.

"Where you going, Shikamaru?!" Naruto called in his direction, he waved his hand and said something about going for a walk so he could think. Naruto shrugged and went over to his sleeping bag, slid inside and soon enough, loud snores could be heard.

"I'll be back as well." Sakura mumbled, "I have to um.." she blushed, not saying anything else, she headed towards the stream where she had gotten the fish.

"Um, excuse me." Ino smiled at Sasuke and then headed off in the direction Shikamaru had went.

Ino walked a little bit slow at first and then quickened her pace, she did not want to make it seem like she was following the lazy ninja around.

"Hey." She said finally, perching down next to him. Shikamaru sat down on the edge of a small cliff, feet dangling into the abyss below.

"Hey." He said back to her.

"What's up?" Ino asked him, she knew very well what was bothering him. He wanted to be alone so he could have his thoughts about Temari to himself, it bothered Ino a little bit knowing that he wasn't fully over her just yet.

"Nothing.. just wanted to get some air." Shikamaru said, "careful, don't fall." He said in a familiar tone, Ino gave him a look and scooted a little close to him.

"Well I have you to save me even if I do." She said with a grin, "erm.."

"Hm?"

"I know you're worried about Temari.." Ino started, turning away from him momentarily. "But I promise you we won't let anything happen to them! We'll give it a hundred and ten percent!"

Shikamaru gave her a lazy smirk.

"Thanks, Ino." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's the least I can do for her, I mean the way we parted..." He trailed off, looking away from the blonde.

"Oh.. yeah that was scary.." Ino said, giving a shudder.

"Er.. actually yesterday at the party, I met her again." Shikamaru said, "she was drunk and pretty much spazzed at me and then left."

"Oh.." Ino mumbled, "..I can't believe I don't remember anything from yesterday." Ino said, feeling a little bit awkward with the current topic.

"Nothing at all?" Shikamaru repeated from earlier, with another faint blush. "I-It's better that way!" He exclaimed, being caught a little bit off guard. Ino raised a blonde brow and then narrowed her eyes at the shinobi.

"Just what are you hiding from me." Ino said in a accusing tone, "just tell me! I know I do stupid things when I'm drunk!"

"No, but.." Shikamaru trailed off, turning a little more pink. "Ino, this was different."

"Oh c'mon, Shikamaru! It can't have been that bad!" Ino shouted, "just tell me! I'm dying to know!"

"Ino," Shikamaru started, looking into her cerulean eyes. "We kissed." He stated, immediately looking away from her, and breaking their gaze.

"Oh." Ino mumbled, also turning away from him and blushing. _How the heck could I not remember that?! Oh Ino, why can't you control yourself when you're drunk?! _"T-That's all! You were scaring me for no reason!" Ino said in a reassuring tone although she cracked at a few points, Ino wasn't sure if he bought that or not but she chose to stay quiet.

"It was more like making out." He added.

"What?!" Ino yelled, jaw on the floor. It wasn't that she had never made out with a guy before it was just that she had never made out with Shikamaru!

"Hey, don't kill me!" He said, placing his hands in front of him. "I tried to stop you! If I hadn't when I did, we probably would've-"

"Ah! Shikamaru, stop!" Ino interrupted, "just don't.."

Nobody spoke for a while, the only sounds that could be heard were Ino's feet hitting the rocks on the cliff whilst she rocked her legs back and forth, finally Ino spoke, breaking the silence.

"Shikamaru..." She started, tone quivering somewhat. "I need to know something, and I want you too answer me honestly."

"Sure, Ino."

"Would you ever be able to feel something for me other than friendship?" She said quietly, avoiding eye contact.

"Ino, it's getting late." Shikamaru mumbled, positioning himself to get up. "We should get back."

Ino followed him back to the campsite.

She took that as a no.

* * *

**Yeah I know it sucked LOL**

**I might continue it depending if you guys really want me too :P **

**But for now my focus is on the bachelorette.. **

**Tell me what you think**

**-MarronB**


	8. What I learnt about you

**So I made this chapter a little longer than the last one and yeah haha..**

**Well I was certainly shocked at the reviews I got telling me to continue this fic.. I was not expecting so many people to be reading it. But I'll give you guys what you want haha..**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"What took you so long, Sakura?" Naruto said to Sakura, who had finally come back.

"Oh nothing, just haven't been feeling so hot lately." Sakura stated, "I think its the effects of the hangover I had yesterday. It's safe to say I'll never be drinking again."

"Shikamaru and Ino are back." Naruto stated, turning his attention away from the pinkette. "Hey you guys!"

"Sup." Shikamaru said coolly.

"So what are we going to do about this sleeping bag situation?" Sakura asked, failing to notice that her friend didn't look so good right now.

"It's fine, Ino can use mine." Shikamaru answered, "I'll sleep without one."

"Suit yourself." Sasuke mumbled, moving to his sleeping bag. Sakura and Naruto did the same and before long they were both wrapped up tightly in their sleeping bags.

"You don't have to do that, I'll be fine." Ino mumbled, sitting across the fire and away from his sleeping bag. She felt a mix of emotions right now, she was hurt first and foremost at the fact that he had basically said he could never feel anything for her, on top of that she was angry as well, for the fact that she couldn't believe he could feel nothing for her.

"It's okay, I'll stand guard." Shikamaru answered, also taking a seat across the fire. "You sleep, we'll have to be up early."

"I don't need a sleeping bag." Ino stated stubbornly, "just take it."

"Ino, I told you I'm standing watch." Shikamaru said firmly, raising his voice somewhat. "Don't be such a bother."

"That's all I am, aren't I?!" Ino growled, "just some burden that always bothers you!"

"What the-"

"Save it!" She shouted, getting up and moving to the opposite side as far away from Shikamaru as she could. She proceeded to lie down on the cold hard ground, she would probably regret this later, but she would not go back on her resolve. She was not going to accept any kind of help from Shikamaru, if her life depended on it.

"Women." Shikamaru muttered under his breath, he wasn't sure what he had done to annoy Ino. He thought about what Ino had asked him earlier, if he would ever be able to have feelings for her. He put two and two together and realized that was probably what had irked her, the fact that he hadn't given her a proper answer.

But frankly, what could he even say? It was different between Ino and himself, yes. But there was still Temari, she was still a part of his life, no matter how far away he was from her.

Shikamaru did not want to give Ino false hopes, nor did he want to lie to her. That is why he stayed silent.

* * *

They had gotten up early around five in the morning and resumed their journey. Apparently they were way ahead of schedule and would probably reach the sand village by evening time today, it was almost noon now and they hadn't stopped since. Nobody displayed any signs of tiredness, so they kept going as long as they could.

Eventually judging by the sun, Sakura concluded that it was at least four PM, she had thrown up again this morning but she hadn't told anybody. She did not want them to worry about her, from her years as a medic she could safely say that this was possible the worst thing she could do right now. Keep pushing herself despite the fact that her body was praying for her too stop.

It was six-thirty PM now, and the group had finally reached the desert. The sand village would be in range in no time, they hadn't stopped for a break since morning, so they had decided to stop for a half hour or so, eat and resume their journey.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Ino asked her friend, placing a hand on her forehead. "You're burning up and you're sweating."

"What?" Sakura snapped, caught a little bit off guard.

"Sakura..." Ino said again, pulling her away from the group. "You aren't well, are you?"

"Ino I'm-"

"Sakura, don't be an idiot. I may be no expert medical ninja like you, but I did train in that field for a few years. You should take it easy!" Ino mumbled under her breath.

"Ino, I'm honestly fine!" Sakura retorted, "I think it might just be a virus or something. I can treat it once we get to the sand village!"

"Sakura-"

"Ino, don't say anything to anyone."

"But Sakura, you-"

"I don't want to slow them down. We need to get there as soon as possible and the mission comes first."

"Saku-"

"Promise me."

"Alright."

After the group rested and ate, they headed off again. Sakura was at her absolute limit, but she chose to ignore it and kept going.

* * *

It was about seven when they finally arrived at the gates of the sand village, the kazekage stood at the entrance waiting to welcome them.

"Thank you for coming to our aid." Gaara said, reaching a hand out to Shikamaru, who shook it firmly. "I myself just arrived here before the group of you."

"Gaara!" Kankuro called, "oh? You guys are here!"

"Yeah, we made it." Shikamaru stated.

"Refresh yourselves, come on! We'll inform you about everything right after." Kankuro said with a grin, leading them inside the village.

"Mmhm.. Ino.." Sakura mumbled, finding herself feeling dizzy.

"Sakura?" Ino said confusingly, turning around just in time to see Sakura falling towards the ground. "Sakura!" She shouted, catching the attention of the rest of the ninja. She quickly ran to her side, catching her just in time so she did not hit the ground.

"Sakura!" Naruto's shouted in a concerned tone, "are you okay?!"

But she had lost consciousness.

* * *

She found herself waking up in an unfamiliar setting, she wasn't sure where she was but after blinking a few times she concluded that she was in a hospital of some sort.

"Ah, so you're awake." An unfamiliar voice said to her, Sakura turned her head slowly to find an older woman standing before her. She was rather short, but she had a friendly aura around her.

"Where am I? What happened?" Sakura asked, attempting to slowly get up.

"Ah, so you don't remember." The woman said, "you are in the medical care of Sunagakure. You arrived here earlier and then fainted." She said.

"Oh that's right.." Sakura mumbled.

"Miss may I ask you a few questions?" The lady said, Sakura nodded. This was standard procedure. "You fainted because of exhaustion and I would advise you to take proper care of yourself, and not to repeat that."

"Hm?" Sakura raised a brow, "well yeah I know I won't-"

"Miss, do you have a boyfriend?" She asked rather nosily.

"Excuse me?!" Sakura retorted, "what does that-"

"Was it the blonde from earlier? No. It was probably the raven haired one!"

"That's none of your business!" Sakura shouted, positioning herself to get out of the bed. "If you'll excuse me-"

"Miss, you may want to wait a minute." The lady said, blocking Sakura from getting up. "I have some great news for you, or not depending on how you'll take it."

"Eh?"

"Congratulations, you're pregnant!"

"WHAT?!"

"B-But.. how?!" Sakura spat out, the lady gave her an odd look but left the room.

"I'll tell the boy to come in then, yes."

Sakura paid no attention to her words, she was way too shocked from the news that had just been given to her. Sakura did not notice when the lady had left the room and when another had entered it.

"Sakura."

Sakura turned her attention in his direction and gave Sasuke a horrified look.

"What did you do to me?!" Sakura screamed, lunging at him. Of course, he was faster than her and had blocked her punch and twisted her around so that he was the dominant one.

"I take it that you are feeling better, then?" He said with a smirk, "though I would advise you not to try that again."

"You jerk!" Sakura spat, tears forming in her eyes.

"And just what did I do?" He asked her, raising a brow, turning her so that she was facing him. "Tell me."

"Explain to me what happened the other night." Sakura said in a murderous tone, "tell me!"

"Hm? The other night, I don't follow." Sasuke said, letting go of her.

"Did we have sex?!" Sakura blurted out, "the nurse told me that I'm pregnant!" She screamed, punching him in the chest repeatedly. "How is that possible when I've never had sex?!"

"You're pregnant?" Sasuke said, ignoring her punches and staring at her with a bewildered expression.

"Answer me!" She shouted, ignoring what he had said.

"Yes, we slept together that night. I was going to tell you later on, but never found the time." Sasuke brushed off, "you're actually pregnant?" He said in a astounded tone she had never heard him use, Sakura glared at him, but it faded away when she saw the gleam in his eye that she had so longed too see.

"Y-Yes..." She said barely above a whisper, "I am.."

The next thing was so unexpected, Sakura had thought it was a dream. This could not be real, no way.

Sasuke had pulled her into a embrace, wrapping his arms around her in a tight protecting hold.

At that moment Sakura forgot any traces of anger she had felt and simply melted into the moment.

Sakura was wondering how this was even possible, they had the absolute best medical technology that was out there in the leaf village, but the earliest they could predict pregnancy was maybe a week or so. It had only been two days, how the heck had they managed to already find out she was pregnant.

In fact, how had she managed to get pregnant anyways. If Sakura knew her medical textbook right, pregnancy symptoms were not supposed to appear right away. In fact, this was next too impossible. Uchiha spawn, she guessed.

Sasuke had led her out of the hospital and into the streets of the Sand village, he stayed rather close to her, seeming as if he had found a new found sense of protection for the girl.

"Erm.. Sasuke?" Sakura mumbled, he turned his head her way to acknowledge that she had his attention. "How is this possible?"

"I don't follow."

"How am I pregnant?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and gave her an odd look.

"Sakura, do you really need me to explain how a man and w-"

"No!" She blushed, "not that!"

"Hm?"

"I mean.. well.. signs of pregnancy aren't supposed to appear this fast... so then how..?"

"They aren't?" He repeated, "guess my kid's just that much superior." He said with a proud smirk, Sakura sighed and mentally noted to ask Tsunade about it once she got home.

"So what's up with the mission?" Sakura asked, changing the subject.

"Kankuro and Gaara are debriefing the others right now." Sasuke stated, "but you won't be coming with us. You stay here."

"What?!" Sakura raised her voice, shouting. "I'm apart of the five man squad-"

"You're also pregnant." He said, cutting her off. "You won't be coming."

"Sasuke, they need me! You can't just make that decision all by yourself." Sakura said, crossing her arms.

"I just did." He said with a superior smirk.

"I'm not going to do that to them!"

"Sakura!" Sasuke started, raising his voice. "Our child is much more important than a mission, I won't let it be in any type of danger."

"Nothing will happen! You'll be there, I'll be there, Naruto will... trust me, it'll be alright!" Sakura exclaimed.

"No."

"But-"

"Sakura, no."

"Sasuke I-"

"Don't argue with me!" He said in a fierce tone, she didn't say anything after that for she felt like it would not be a good time. They continued their walk in silence and eventually ended up at the place where the others were.

"Hey, sorry we're late." Sasuke said, entering the room where everybody sat.

"Good, you're just in time." Gaara said, "Kankuro, fill them in."

"Er, yeah." Kankuro said, placing a hand behind his head in a manner similar to Shikamaru's. "So what happened was that there was a series of attacks on the sand village while we were not present here." He said, tone turning darker and serious.

"A few of our best ninja were slaughtered and the rest injured." Temari said, appearing in the room. Ino visibly tensed a bit upon seeing her presence, Temari paid no mind to Shikamaru or Ino.

"Yes. We have reason to believe that the Akatsuki are involved, for we recieved word from some of our ninja that Sasori of the Red Sand was amongst them." Kankuro continued.

"Sasori of the red sand? Who is that?" Sakura asked out of curiosity.

"He was a master puppeteer, he was from the sand village itself." Kankuro began, "he was absolutely amazing in his time. Although, he eventually went astray and became a missing ninja."

"We believed for him to be dead but it turns out he is alive." Temari added, "anyways, back to the mission at hand."

"Right." Kankuro said, "the two of us, Temari and myself will accompany you guys in the direction we believe the Akatsuki is headed."

"The two of you?" Ino blurted out, then instantly covered her mouth.

"Yes." Kankuro answered, not noticing the elephant in the room. "Our mission is too find out why they attacked the sand village and make sure that it is never to happen again. They attacked us, so we will try to capture them or kill them if that is not possible."

"We have set up the right defense measures here in the village and I will stand guard myself." Gaara interrupted, "you all are to leave immediately if there are any signs of danger. We want to find out what is up with the Akatsuki but we do not want to be killed, understood?"

Everyone nodded.

"Then good luck." Gaara said, before exiting the room.

"We'll meet at the front gates in about twenty minutes, we just have to take care of a few things." Kankuro said with a wink, "and thanks for helping us out, you guys."

"No problem!" Naruto exclaimed with a thumbs up, "glad to help!"

Kankuro and Temari exited the room, and Ino couldn't have been more glad. But she was so not looking forward to spending a mission with the feisty blonde, she did not want to end up clobbered.

"Sakura, are you feeling better?" Shikamaru asked the pinkette.

"She won't be coming on the mission with us." Sasuke said before Sakura had the chance to open her mouth.

"What? Are you alright?" Shikamaru said with concern in his voice.

"Sakura, you wimp." Ino snorted, "just come!"

"I know I-" Sakura started, but was interrupted again.

"It would be better if she didn't." Sasuke said in a low tone.

"I don't mind." Shikamaru said, "the entire decision is up to you guys, we could use a trained medical ninja on our team but if Sakura is not feeling up to it, then I will not force her." He continued, "I'll see you guys at the front gates, then?" Shikamaru said, before leaving the room.

"Hmph!" Ino said, crossing her arms. "You suck, forehead!" She grumbled, before leaving the room as well.

"What happened to you, Sakura?" Naruto asked curiously, placing a hand on Sakura's forehead.

"I'm fine!" Sakura said, slapping his hand away. "Sasuke's just-"

"Sakura-"

"No!" Sakura cut him off, "I honestly doubt that I'm pregnant, I mean only after two days?! No way!"

"WHAAAAAT?!" Naruto screamed, looking similar to the scream portrait that was very popular.

"Sakura!" Sasuke raised his voice, "the nurse said-"

"There is definitely a mistake! There is a very, very low chance of pregnancy being able to be detected this fast. You don't get it, its not possible!"

"That means.. you guys..." Naruto stammered, "congratulations, Sakura!"

"Oh for the love of.." Sakura mumbled, slapping her forehead.

"You are not going on this mission." Sasuke said, "and that's final."

"Teme's right, Sakura." Naruto added, "it wouldn't be very safe, what if we ran into the Akatsuki?"

"Oh?" Sakura snorted, "and I would be so safe here right?"

"Correct." Sasuke said.

"I don't care what you say, I won't believe that I'm pregnant until I check for it myself back in the leaf village."

"Sakura you're being stubborn for no reason-"

"I've made up my mind, I'm coming on the mission."

"Sak-"

But she had left the room and slammed the door behind her.

* * *

"So we're set then?" Temari said to the group of ninja around her. "We'll form into groups of two and take different routes." Temari started, "if we run into anything suspicious, we let out a signal flare."

"Signal flare?" Naruto repeated confusingly.

"Yes. Here." She said, passing everybody what looked like something a firework would be shot out of. "Just hold it straight into the air and push the bottom three times. It will fire a few flares into the sky and we will know where you are right away."

"Understood." Sakura nodded.

"Now, seeing as there is an odd number of us... I don't know how to do this." Temari started, "when the Akatsuki left, they left some faint tracks into what direction they were going. However, they have tried to lead us off track by making many false directions. We have no choice but too try them all."

"True enough." Shikamaru nodded, "so there are three possible routes. We'll divide up into three groups, then.."

"I'll stick with Sakura." Sasuke said before anyone, Shikamaru gave him a confused look but nodded nonetheless.

"Okay.. any other preference?"

Nobody spoke up.

"Alright then, we'll split into who we are the strongest with." Shikamaru began, "Kankuro, Temari.. you two know each other's techniques the best, so I think you two should go together. Naruto you stick with Sasuke and Sakura, and since Ino and I work well with each other, we will go together."

"No surprise there." Temari muttered under her breath.

"Good luck everyone." Shikamaru said, before everybody took off in their separate ways.

"Don't strain yourself."

"I'll be fine!"

"Do you need a break?"

Naruto twitched, that was all he had been hearing back and forth for the past hour or so. If he heard it one more time, he swore he would...

"Do you want some wate-"

"Enough!" Naruto growled, coming to a sudden halt. The pair behind him stopping abruptly as well too.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked cluelessly, "is something the matter?"

"Yes, Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What's up?" Sasuke asked, crossing his arms. "Sense something?"

"Just your damn bickering that's all!" Naruto growled, "I'm worried about Sakura too, but you just ne-"

"My, my, what do we have here?" An unfamiliar voice interrupted, the trio turned their head to the source and immediately assumed defensive positions.

"Who are you?!" Naruto growled, jumping forward so that he was standing across the person on the ground, Sasuke and Sakura also followed suite.

"The person you're looking for." He answered with a smirk, "I can't believe you caught up to me that fast though. Well.. I guess it's my own fault for leaving my guard down."

"Who are you?!" Sakura shouted, "what do you want with the sand village?!"

"Girl... mind your tongue. Learn how to talk to your superiors, first." He said with a simple furrow of the brows.

"And who might you be?" Sasuke asked him.

"Sasori of the Red Sand. I'm sure you've heard of me." Sasori said with a small smirk, "oh... I know those eyes all too well. You are an Uchiha, are you not?"

"Hn."

"It doesn't matter who you are!" Naruto shouted, lunging forward to land a punch on the red-headed boy. "You attacked the sand!"

"Hmph." Sasori smirked, twirling his fingers. The next thing Naruto knew, he was thrown back, landing on his stomach.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried, running over to see her blonde teammate. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine.." Naruto growled, getting back up on his feet. "A puppet master."

Sasori gave another smirk and twirled his fingers around, presumably moving the chakra strings that were attached to his puppets.

"So what do we do?!" Sakura asked the two boys, they did not answer her, their gaze never leaving Sasori.

"We defeat him." Sasuke smirked, Naruto nodded and the pair began their combo attack on the Akatsuki member.

* * *

Shikamaru and Ino had been traveling together for the past hour or so and they hadn't come across anything suspicious since. In fact, they hadn't talked much either, Shikamaru was in front and Ino was behind him. He occasionally glanced back to make sure she was following him and that was it.

Ino moved to make her next leap, when she collided into something hard.

"Ah-" She started, but a hand was placed on her mouth and a arm engulfed her waist to prevent her from falling. She blinked to find that it was Shikamaru who had covered her mouth and grabbed her, before she could comprehend anything he had pulled the pair of them behind a tree.

"Shhh!" He said, motioning for her to stay quiet, his arm never removing himself from her waist. She unconsciously felt herself pressing herself closer to him as a sort of protection, he did not budge at the contact.

Shikamaru turned his pupils ever so slightly so he could get a look at the scene before him.

It was just a raccoon.

"Phew." Shikamaru let out, "we can't be too careful."

"Yeah.." Ino trailed off, noticing the closeness between the pair. Shikamaru's arm was still wrapped around her waist and she was pressed against him close enough that she could hear his heartbeat. "Umm.." She started, blushing a little bit and attempting to move out of his grasp.

"Oh, sorry." Shikamaru said, faintly turning pink when he caught onto what she was implying at. "We should keep going."

"Yes." Ino answered and they continued their pursuit.

Ino realized at that moment that, that was all it ever was between them. They would have a little bit of interaction and then have this huge awkward pause after that lasted hours or days even, just what was this?

"Shikamaru, look!" Ino suddenly called, pointing to the sky where a bunch of flares were fired.

"Shit!" Shikamaru exclaimed, coming to a halt. "I guess one of them found the enemy! C'mon!"

* * *

"Gah!" Naruto screamed as he was thrown back into a tree.

"Ugh!" Sasuke grumbled as he was thrown into another tree.

Sasori gave a wicked smirk.

"Give it up, you can't beat me."

Sakura looked around and gasped, Naruto had been thrown head first into a tree and had already been battered from before, he seemed to have been knocked unconscious. Sasuke was conscious but it seemed that he had injured his leg and was unable to walk, he was lying face down on the floor.

"And that just leaves you." Sasori said, slowly walking towards her. Sakura furrowed her brows, no.. there was no way that she was pregnant, it was not possible..

So then why wasn't she fighting with the others then?

Did she want to believe she was pregnant just so Sasuke would give her the attention that he had been giving her?

No... she wasn't that girl anymore.

"Don't underestimate me!" Sakura shouted, rushing forward and getting a punch ready.

"Hmph." He smirked, moving one finger ever so slightly.

"A-Ah!" She cried out in pain, looking over at her shoulder. A blade had pierced it very deep, Sakura hesitantly pulled out the blade, whimpering a little more.

"It's over." Sasori muttered.

Sakura did not understand what he meant by those words until she felt her body go numb and the next thing she knew she was lying on the ground.

"The second I touched you. It was over." Sasori said with a smirk, "you will be dead within three days."

Sakura felt herself slowly unable to register his words, for her world was going black. The last thing she managed to make out was...

"Jerk! That wasn't part of the plan!"

".. does this woman mean something to you?"

"She's carrying my child, dammit!"

And then it went black.

* * *

"Over there!" Ino shouted, her eyes widened at the scene before her. Three bodies lay on the ground, each looking horrible. "O-Oh my.."

"Crap!" Shikamaru shouted, rushing over to Naruto's side, "Naruto?! Can you hear me?!"

"Unhhgh.." Naruto moaned unconsciously, he looked absolutely horrible. He had cuts and bruises all over his body and it looked as if he had suffered a concussion from where he had smashed into the tree.

"He's out.. we gotta get them back to the sand village!" Shikamaru exclaimed.

"Sakura's not doing to well either, she has a gash on her shoulder and.. she's burning up." Ino added, "and Sasuke?"

"I-I'm fine.." Sasuke muttered, making movement to get up. "He didn't get me as bad."

"I noticed." Shikamaru began, narrowing his eyes slightly. At that moment Kankuro and Temari arrived, breaking the ice.

"Whoa, what went down here.." Kankuro began.

"We'll tell you on the way, right now we need to get them to the village! Help me carry them!"

And then they were off back to the sand village.

The red-haired boy stood watching from the branches, eyeing the Uchiha.

These people had no idea what was going to go down.

* * *

They made it to the village in just over an hour and immediately headed over to the medical ward.

"G-Ah!" Sakura screamed in pain unconsciously, "m-make it stop.." she mumbled.

"Oh my.." The lady in the medical ward mumbled, rubbing Sakura's temples and then her wrists. "This young lady is poisoned, and very badly too."

"Can't you fix it?!" Ino cried, covering her mouth with her hands.

"I can't seem to figure out where it is stemming from... it's just all over." She said.

"So then what?!" Ino widened her eyes.

"We can't make a cure for this, I'm afraid." She concluded sadly, avoiding eye contact. "I'm sorry."

"You.. what?!" Ino shouted, "so then we're just supposed to sit here and watch Sakura die?!"

"What's going on in here?" Shikamaru said, entering the room followed by Sasuke and Temari. "Ino?"

"Shikamaru!" Ino cried, a tear rolling down her cheek. "This woman.. she said that Sakura is incurable!"

"What?!" Shikamaru and Temari said in unison, Sasuke look unfazed.

"I'm afraid the poison is spreading much too rapidly." The lady said.

"Stand aside." Sasuke muttered, pushing past the medic and towards Sakura.

"What are you-" Ino started, but Sasuke paid her no attention. "Stop! You can't just-"

"Quiet." Sasuke interrupted her, "I know what I'm doing." He said, pulling a syringe from his pocket and quietly stabbing Sakura in the arm with it before anybody could react.

"Sasuke!" Ino cried, "what did you do to her?!"

"Wait a minute.." Temari started, noting Sakura's breathing pattern changing. "She's breathing normally now."

"Hn. It was something I swiped from that puppet master, Sasori." Sasuke stated casually, "I assumed it was an antidote."

"And what if it wasn't?!" Ino shouted, "what if-"

"Would you pipe down already?" Temari growled, "he knows what he's doing."

"Temari-" Shikamaru started.

"Oh save it, I don't need to hear your damn defending of her." Temari rolled her eyes, "I'll be outside if anyone needs me." She said, before leaving the room. Shikamaru's eyes followed her until she had left the room, he clenched his fist and wore a torn expression.

"Shikamaru.." Ino mumbled, she stared at him with sympathy.

"Uh excuse me.." Shikamaru said, before leaving the room as well. Ino followed him after a minute or two had passed by.

* * *

Ino wandered the halls trying to locate the lazy ninja, in just a span of a few minutes he had managed to get pretty far. Ino had almost been ready to give up her search, when she heard two voices.

"Can't you just leave me alone? Ino recognized that voice as Temari's, she seemed to be very angry.

"I can't! You know that!" And that was what Ino had been predicted, she smiled sadly at herself. It was non other than Shikamaru, she leaned closer to the door so she could hear better.

"You have that other blonde to worry about. Just leave me." Temari shouted again.

"Temari!" Shikamaru said, raising his voice. "You have to know.."

"..."

"That if this jutsu hadn't been placed on us, undoubtedly you would be the woman I would marry."

Ino felt a pain in her chest so great that she was sure she was going to die, tears began welling up in her eyes and she covered her mouth quickly with her hand so that she could not be heard.

She had known that already, Shikamaru was in a relationship with Temari and he obviously loved her. But she had thought that maybe... that after the time they spent together and the moments they shared, he could gradually learn to love her. He could learn to live with her.. but she was obviously wrong.

"You mean that?" Temari mumbled in a lower voice, faint movement was heard and Ino presumed that Temari had moved closer to Shikamaru. "So you... feel nothing for her?"

Ino almost felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest at the rate it was pacing right now, she wanted to run away, move dammit, but her legs were frozen.

"She's..." Shikamaru started, "I'll always love you, Temari."

And that did the trick, Ino felt her legs give out and before she could be heard she ran to the end of the hall and out the door. She did not know where she was going, she just knew she had to run and she had to get far away.

So then every moment they had ever shared had meant nothing to him?

Their kisses, the jealousy.. all of it meant nothing.

She would always be nothing more than a friend to Shikamaru.

* * *

Sakura felt herself regain consciousness and the second she made movement to get up she felt her body shut down on her.

"Damn!" She cried out, falling back onto the bed.

"Hn, so you're awake?" Sasuke said from her bedside, "it's been quite a while."

"Sas..uke?" Sakura mumbled, squinting her eyes so she could clear her vision which was getting quite blurry. "What happened?"

"Sasori attacked you with his poison." Sasuke stated, "but an injection was administered."

"I see.." Sakura mumbled, she furrowed her brows a little bit trying to recall the memory of being attacked by Sasori but for some reason she could not remember anything. It was almost like the battle had never happened for her.

"Ah, so you're awake then?" The lady from earlier said walking into the room. "How are you?"

"Alive." Sakura answered grimly, "my body feels horrible."

"Yes, you will require a lot of rest." The woman stated, "erm... there's something the two of you need to know."

"Yes?" Sakura asked her, raising a brow.

"You aren't pregnant."

"Heh?" Sakura widened her eyes, raising both brows. "I know but ho-"

"We may have mixed up the results earlier with someone."

"You, what?!" Sasuke uncharacteristically exclaimed, jumping out of his seat.

"Erm yes.. it was actually supposed to go to the lady to the room next to you... I do apologize." She said rather quietly, then left the room.

"Phew!" Sakura mumbled, wiping her forehead. "Got me all worried for nothing."

Sasuke was not displaying the same reaction as Sakura was however, he clenched his fists and furrowed his brows in anger and immediately left the room. Reaching the top of the hospital, he punched a wall.

Dammit, he had thought he had gotten what he wanted. An heir, that was all he needed. Narrowing his eyes he calmed himself down, there was plenty of time for that still, he need not worry.

The attack wasn't due for months.

* * *

"Are you guys sure you're okay enough to travel?" Temari asked the group of ninja as they stood by the gates of the village.

"Yeah, we should be fine." Shikamaru answered lazily.

"Thank you for coming to our aid." Gaara stated, "it was a shame that we couldn't find more information on the Akatsuki, but we will make due with what we have. Please, keep your eyes vigilant in your village as well. I bid you farewell."

The group nodded and turned in the opposite direction to return back to their village.

"Well that accomplished nothing." Naruto snorted, walking a little slower than usual due to the injuries he had sustained.

Sakura and Ino both looked in the direction of their respective fiancees.

'I learned something.'

* * *

**So there you have it folks!**

**The original plan was to make Sakura pregnant but I didn't want to rush right into it, I wanted to give a little bid of a demonstration of what how Sasuke's attitude were to change towards Sakura should she get pregnant and I wanted Sakura to realize that to further develop the plot.**

**Also hehe something fishy is up :) **

**I know I keep going back to the InoShikaTem triangle, but just bear with me hehe**

**Review , let me know what you thought.**

**Next Chapter will have a bit of a time leap of like two weeks or so.**

**-MarronB**


	9. Brown meets Baby Blue

**Can I just say wow?! I was not expecting as many reviews and follows and faves as I got! Wow...**

**Honestly you guys, I had lost all hope for this story and simply not because I wasn't getting enough reviews, but because I personally just felt like it was dead too me.**

**But with your excellent feedback, I gave it another chance and find myself inspired to write it again woohoo!**

**Anyways this chapter came a lot sooner than I expected and I feel its only fair :) **

**So enjoy!**

* * *

The journey back to the village was taking much longer due to Sakura and Naruto not being able to operate at full capacity. They had covered about 1/4 of the journey when night fell, they decided to set up camp and go find food and all of that.

"Ino, is something wrong? You seem a little pale." Sakura said to her blonde friend, who shook her head no and continued attempting to set up a fire. "You're lying."

"I'm fine." Ino stated, furrowing her eyebrows and continuing to try to light the fire.

"Ino.. c'mon, tell me. You've been like this ever since we left the sand village." Sakura said, "no one's around, just tell me." She pointed to her surroundings, the three boys had gone off to fetch some food.

"The thing is.." Ino sighed in defeat, her friend wouldn't have it any other way so she had no choice but to tell her. "I overheard Shikamaru and Temari talking."

"Oh my.. and?"

"He basically told her that he would love her and not me." Ino stated.

"He said that?" Sakura raised a brow.

"Well... yeah. He said he would always love her and if it wasn't for this whole jutsu thing he would undoubtedly marry her."

"I see... and did he say that he doesn't have feelings for you?"

"He never said he did." Ino raised her voice, knowing very well where Sakura was going with this.

"Ino... I think you might be over thinking it." Sakura said, "from everything you've told me before about the two of you, there is definitely something there."

"But Sa-"

"Ino, you told me once that I was a bud that was waiting too bloom, right?" Sakura paused, "I think now... the romance between Shikamaru and you is waiting too bloom. You can't expect him to fall in love with you just like that, it'll take some time. Just trust him and stop pushing him away!"

"Sakura..." Ino gasped, speechless for once. Her friend's speech was rather motivational but Ino still had her doubts, she didn't want to keep making it seem like she was fawning all over him and he did nothing in return.

"Ino, it'll be fine." Sakura gave her a grin and then began unpacking the sleeping bags, losing herself in her own thoughts.

Sasuke had a 360 personality change when he found out that Sakura was supposably pregnant, too say it had shocked her had been an understatement.

Sakura wanted to believe that he cared about her, he had too.

Right?

The boys came back a few minutes later, the group of them roasted some fish and before long everybody was getting into their sleeping bags to call it a night. They had grabbed an extra sleeping bag from the sand village to accommodate their journey, and it worked out now.

Ino did not speak a word to Shikamaru.

She wasn't going too.

It was done.

She was done.

* * *

Two weeks passed by since the five of them returned from their mission, life was pretty much continuing on as it had since before that.

Hinata was just about stressed out in every way possible, her wedding with Naruto was in less than a month and the fact that Hinata was the heir of the Hyuga clan meant that it was going to be a very extravagant affair, in fact it was much more hyped in the village than Sakura and Sasuke's wedding by a long shot. She never had time for anything really, always having to split her time with the wedding and spending time with Naruto.

Naruto for his part had absolutely no worries whatsoever, his prime goal in his life was to bring back his best friend to the village and Sasuke was undoubtedly back now. Naruto had not worry about paying for his wedding for Hinata's father would take care of that, and the more time Naruto spent with Hinata, the more he learnt about her. One aspect he particularly enjoyed was her cooking, every time she would come over she would bake him a delicious dish and he loved it.

Neji and Tenten had moved in together and were seemingly alright with everything, they didn't seem much different in the romance department but they were doing just fine as friends and they could live with that. Neji eventually opened up to Tenten about the troubles that were on his mind and she slowly but surely made him feel much better, to say his worries were gone would be a lie, but Tenten definitely made everything easier, knowing that there was someone there with you every step of the way.

Shikamaru and Ino... they hadn't spoken much since the mission, it wasn't like they stopped talking altogether just much less. Shikamaru dropped by to see her here and there but didn't usually stay for long, chatted with her parents and that was just about it. Obviously he had noticed the absence of his blonde friend, but like always he chose not to pursue the issue for he felt women were a bother. But there were times he asked himself if he was doing the right thing.

Ino always told her parents that she did not want to see him as she ran to her flower shop whenever she could. She had decided that she was done working on Shikamaru and despite anything she felt, he would never feel the same way about her. Besides, Ino had been very busy helping Sakura plan her wedding.

Sasuke and Sakura were to be wed in a week and nothing had ever been more chaotic in the Uchiha household, Sakura woke up extra early everyday to make sure everything was downright perfect and Ino showed up usually an hour or two later. Sakura didn't know where her life would head after this wedding but she had always wanted a perfect wedding, and she was going to make sure that it was nothing less of that.

Sasuke was one to usually stay calm in a situation but even he was getting rather annoyed with the daily events of the past few weeks. Sakura would wake up, grab that damn list she carried around with her everywhere, freak out about one thing and then another. The blonde would show up, and much less being a help she would make things one thousand times worse by lecturing Sakura about something or freaking out about another thing, Sasuke was slowly losing his mind.

And today would be no different.

"Sasuke! Wake up!" Sakura shook her fiancee awake, "get up!"

He covered his face with the covers and made a noise similar to a growl.

"There is only five days left till the wedding!" Sakura said, shaking him. "You have to go stay with Naruto!"

"Hn. And just why is that?" He said, still covering his face with the covers.

"We aren't supposed to see each other before the wedding!" She screeched, pulling the covers off of him. "You have to go!"

"Sakura, it's six am!" Sasuke said, throwing the covers off of him and onto her in anger. "Let me sleep!"

"Sasuke! I won't take no for an answer!" Sakura furrowed her brows, "out!"

"Dammit!" He shouted, taking a hold of her arm and pulling her so that her face was a few inches from him. "Sharingan." He muttered and stared into her eyes.

"What are you..." But Sakura could not finish her sentence, for she fell into the world of the unconscious.

* * *

Around nine AM, Ino began her daily voyage from her house to the Uchiha compound, she was going to finalize Sakura's wedding dress, the cake and the venue where they would host the wedding. Between that and taking care of the flower shop, Ino didn't have time for anything else or anyone else.

To be honest, he still crossed her mind here and there. But she was over greeting him when he came back from his missions, inviting him over to her house and hanging out. She was just done with it. Ino had given one hundred and ten percent and Shikamaru in return basically proclaimed his love for Temari. Just who was she butting into something like that?

So she did what any overemotional teenager would do; she avoided him.

"That's odd.." Ino mumbled to herself, reaching Sakura and Sasuke's home. "It's awfully quiet." Usually when she arrived, there would be some bickering mostly on Sakura's end, and occasionally Naruto if he were there. But today, it was just silent.

Ino raised a brow but let herself into the household nonetheless, taking her shoes off at the front door. Looking around to find nobody in the living room, she silently walked on.

Sakura had told Ino about the whole fake pregnancy scare and how she had slept with Sasuke but recalled nothing of it, Ino listened and watched Sakura try to hide the fact that she was torn about not being pregnant.

Ino knew that Sakura was young and she still had a lot to do in life and wouldn't want to get pregnant at such an early age, but she also read from Sakura's face that a part of her wanted to be pregnant so she could receive the care Sasuke showed her during the brief period in which they had thought she was pregnant.

"Okay, what the hell?" Ino mumbled, "usually Sakura is awake by this time.." She knew she was pushing her boundaries, but she slowly peeked into the bedroom and her eyes widened in shock. A smile began to form on her lips and she peeled herself away from the door and onto the couch in the living room.

Sakura and Sasuke both lay peacefully sleeping in the bed, not a care in the world. She decided not to bother them just yet.

* * *

"Jerk!" Sakura screamed, awakening from her four hour slumber. The clock read 10 am now and she stumbled until she was towering over the bed which a very much asleep Uchiha lay in. "Wake the hell up!" Sakura exclaimed, Sasuke opened his eyes instantly and landed on her. He got into an upright position, and gave a small smirk.

"You're awake, I see?"

"You jerk!" Sakura exclaimed, "what kind of asshole uses sharingan on their own friend?!"

"The kind that needs sleep." Sasuke answered mischievously, "you were pushing it, waking me up at such an absurd time. My reaction was reasonable."

"R-Reasonable?!" Sakura growled, "leave!"

"It's my house."

"I'm the bride!"

"It's _my _house."

"I'm the freaking bride!" Sakura roared, "get out before I-"

"Before you what? What can you do?" Sasuke said, provoking her. "It's my house and I refuse to leave."

"Fine." Sakura crossed her arms, "if you won't leave, then I will." She said triumphantly, "I'll stay with Ino."

"Suit yourself." Sasuke stated, unfazed and lying back down into bed. "See you in five days."

"Bye, jerk!" Sakura exclaimed before rushing out the door in a hurry, she stopped in her tracks when she came face to face with a blonde she called her best friend.

"Holy hell." Ino mumbled, "you guys are so..."

"Save it! Let's go!" Sakura furrowed her brows and dragged her friend out of the house.

"What the heck was that all about?!" Ino exclaimed, removing herself from the grasp of Sakura, "I saw you two sleeping peacefully and thought I would leave you too... bad call.." Ino gulped.

"Very bad call." Sakura answered, "that fucking jerk used his sharingan on me when I told him to leave the house in the morning!"

"Damn.." Ino muttered, "but leave it! We have more important things to worry about!"

"So where are we going exactly?" Sakura asked her friend, choosing to ignore her previous statement. "Your house?"

"Actually... my house is kind of... off limits." Ino said nervously, "how about Hinata's?"

"Nope, she's busy with her own wedding preparations. You should see the state of the Hyuga manor, Hinata and Naruto's wedding is definitely going to be the wedding of the century." Sakura answered, "why can't we go to your house?"

"You can sleep there, I don't mind that! But erm.."

"What?"

"The thing is..."

"Ino?"

"Shikamarualwayscomesoverandihavetohidefromhim."

"I'm sorry? What?"

"Shikamaru drops by sometimes! I usually just hide in my room!" Ino answered.

"Are you kidding me?!" Sakura shouted, louder than she meant too. "You told me that you guys had talked!"

"Erm... we did!" Ino said innocently, "he saw me one day and said hi! We talked!"

"Oh for the love of..!" Sakura said, slapping her forehead. "You can't hide in your room forever!"

"I know, that's why I'm always at your place or at the flower shop." Ino said smartly.

"Ino! You can't avoid him like this, you guys are going to be married soon it's not healthy at all!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Sakura, shut up!" Ino furrowed her brow, "how would you feel if Sasuke declared his love to someone else and basically made it evident twenty four seven that, that said girl was on his mind?!" Ino blurted out.

"Ino, that's not fair. It's different between the two of you, you two have been together as friends for much longer, he knows you so much better. Just talk to him, I'm telling you this isn't going to end well if you keep avoiding him." Sakura declared.

"Sakura, we can worry about Shikamaru and myself later. We should focus on your wedding for now."

"But Ino-"

"Sakura, I'm telling you, I'll be fine."

"If you're sure.."

"So where are we going then?" Ino asked her best friend.

"I guess we'll have to go to my parents house." Sakura mumbled, "I apologize in advance."

"For what?"

* * *

"Oh Sakura darling, I can't believe that you're getting married!" Sakura's mother whined, "it seemed like it was only yesterday that you were a little baby in my arms!"

"Mom!" Sakura blushed, "you're embarrassing me! Ino and I have work to do, can you please leave us alone for a while?!"

"Sure, sure, you're just so grown up now!" Mrs. Haruno said, before leaving Sakura and Ino alone in Sakura's old room.

"So update me on the wedding situation." Sakura stated, furrowing her brows at the way her mother acted.

"Yeah.." Ino trailed off, pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket. "Wedding dress will be ready for pickup tomorrow morning, where the final touches will be added."

"Right."

"Wedding cake will be ready the day after tomorrow."

"Mhmm."

"The church for the wedding and the venue for the reception is ready."

"Good."

"Buffet, bar.. everything's taken care of." Ino stated, "just a few things remain, like your vows?"

"Oh..." Sakura started, "we aren't..."

"I figured. No matter, lot's of people do it that way." Ino paused, "and the only other thing is the matter of the bridesmaids and the groomsmen.. and of course, your maid of honor."

"Hm?" Sakura raised a brow, "Ino what kind of thing to say is that."

"Heh?"

"Obviously you're my maid of honor!" Sakura exclaimed, "you made it sound so dramatic!"

"Oh... Sakura!" Ino lunged forward, engulfing her best friend in a hug. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Er.. no problem!" Sakura said, "can you let me go now please?"

"Oh yeah, sorry." Ino blushed, "I just get so excited when it comes to weddings."

"I know... uh anyways, my only other bridesmaids are Hinata and Tenten. I think Sasuke is just going to have Naruto, Shikamaru and Neji."

"What?! Why them?!" Ino exclaimed, "I-I mean... why Shikamaru? They don't talk much!"

"You can thank Naruto for that awesome idea." Sakura grinned, "he wanted to pair everyone off, guess who you'll be walking down the aisle with." She said, her grin growing wider.

"Oh kill me.." Ino mumbled, hitting her head against the wall.

"You should go talk to him."

"F-"

"Oh save it." Sakura snorted, "go!"

* * *

She has never walked so slow in her life, she thought to herself. Sakura basically kicked her out of her room and then her house and told her not to return until she talked to Shikamaru. This time, Ino knew she would have to do it, for there were different circumstances now.

Ino finally got to Shikamaru's place, and after standing in front of the front door for a good few minutes she finally summoned up the courage to knock.

One second

Two second

Three..

Four..

"Ino!" Mrs. Nara said with a grin, "haven't seen you in a while, young lady!" She said, engulfing Ino into a hug.

"Erm.. Hi, Mrs. Nara, er is Shikamaru here?"

"Yep! He's upstairs in his room, just got back from a mission this morning! Come in!" She exclaimed, making way for Ino to get in the house.

"Thank you." Ino said politely, taking off her shoes and entering the house. She gulped and slowly made her way up the stairs to get to Shikamaru's room. The door was open to his room and she hesitantly made her way forward.

And she saw him.

It had been a while since she had seen him thats for sure, his visits began to turn less frequent as time went by and she just started to avoid him altogether.

His hair was put up in a lazy ponytail, he was wearing his flak jacket still and he was sprawled over his bed, with his eyes closed.

"Who's there?" He asked, with his eyes still closed.

"It's... me..." Ino mumbled quietly, she slowly moved forward so that she was now in his room.

"Oh." He answered, opening his eyes and getting into an upright position, he shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. Lighting the cigarette and then taking a long drag from it, he turned his attention back to her. "Been a while?"

"Yeah.." Ino said, clenching her nose with her hand to cover herself from the foul smell. "You shouldn't smoke inside."

"I'm sure you didn't come all the way here to tell me that." Shikamaru stated, taking another drag of his cigarette and then blowing the smoke out, leading Ino to cough.. over dramatically of course. "What brings you here?"

"I..." She started, "we need to talk."

"Figures." He said, throwing the cigarette in a nearby ashtray.

"Look..." Ino began, "I think that we should just stay friends."

"Hm?" Shikamaru started, raising a brow. "I thought we were already friends."

"What kind of friends kiss as many times as we did." Ino snorted, then covered her mouth with her hands. "Eh... that came out wrong."

"I follow what you mean." Shikamaru said lazily, "I think it would be for the best."

Ino gave a fake smile and began to turn around to leave, she could feel herself getting overcome with emotions, she felt anger and sadness at his statement and she most definitely did not want to cry in front of him.

"Because you love Temari, right?" Ino said slowly, still facing the door.

"Partially." Shikamaru answered, Ino could hear him shuffling. "But.."

"Hm?" She said, turning around and regretting it instantly for he was standing right behind her. She did not want to stare into those brown eyes for her entire resolve would weaken if she did so.

But she did anyways.

She turned around and stared long and hard into those brown eyes that made her feel funny in her tummy. Those eyes that could make her day better no matter how bad it was going. Those same eyes that she had grown up with and grown to love. She didn't care right now that there were tears streaming down her cheeks freely, or that her nose had begin to turn red.. all she cared about was the way his eyes mesmerized her.

Shikamaru returned her gaze and brown met baby blue. Baby blue that looked very misty due to the tears forming in her eyes, some had already escaped her eye sockets and were raining down her face. He noticed that, he always noticed things when it came to her. Shikamaru wanted to wipe away her tears and hold her and tell her that everything would be okay, but if he were to do that he would ultimately be lying.

He knew for a fact that he had a soft spot for her, and with time who knows what it could grow into. Something that he did not want to think about for it seemed so far away and so surreal, it seemed impossible. But he knew that would only be a dream for the reality was that he loved Temari, and not Ino.

Didn't he?

If he loved Temari, then how come everytime he stared into her baby blue eyes he felt something arouse within him. He wanted to protect her from harm and would do anything to keep her out of dangers way.

So if he felt this way about her, why hadn't he told her that something could develop between the two of them on the mission weeks prior? Was he afraid? Afraid of what would happen if he were to love Ino instead of Temari.

"I... I should go." Ino finally said, breaking the silence between them. She turned around to leave, and it was now or never.

Shikamaru wrapped Ino by the wrist and pulled her forcefully so that her body slammed into his. He instantly wrapped his arms around her and pushed her close to him, shoving her head into his shoulder and his face into the crook of her neck.

He would protect her from anything, defend her from anyone. But how could he have been so blind when lately the person that had been hurting her the most was non other than himself.

She wasn't responsive, scared perhaps, he assumed.

"Ino.." Shikamaru started, still leaning down onto her neck. "I'm sorry."

"W-What are you..? For what?" She asked confusingly, she hadn't meant to sound like such an idiot, but he had caught her by surprise.

"For hurting you." He answered, tightening his hold on her. "You asked me if I could ever feel anything for you..." He paused, "and the truth is, no."

Ino closed her eyes in frustration, why was he doing this again? He had already emotionally hurt her enough for one day, could he not draw the line? She attempted to remove herself from his grasp, but his vice like grip made it pretty much impossible for her.

"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed, "let me go!"

"Here me out." He started, not letting her get another word in. "You asked me if I could ever feel anything for you and the answer is no. Because... I already feel something for you." Shikamaru mumbled, looking away from her gaze with a blush accompanying his features. "There is something about you that sets you apart from everyone else, every damn touch and interaction with you... it just makes me..." He stumbled upon his words for he was unsure of what to say to properly express how he felt.

"Shhhh.." Ino whispered, placing a finger on his lips. "I know." She said, before leaning up on her tiptoes and placing a kiss on his lips, he didn't have to think twice before kissing her back and deepening the kiss. Shikamaru pushed Ino against a wall and removed his lips from her lips and began trailing kisses down her neck, and coming back up to her lips every now and then.

"Mmhmm..!" She moaned out, and this time nothing would stop them. This time Ino was not drunk, she was in her senses and she knew what she was doing.

"S-Should I stop?" He asked her, "I don't want to pressure you."

"No.." Ino mumbled, "I want this." She said, linking her hand with his and kissing him again.

They weren't quite boyfriend and girlfriend yet and nor were they in love, but this was the start of something and they would eventually get there.

* * *

**hehehe...**

**Sorry if I ended it quick LOL **

**I got so hyped up and then totally just died and wanted to post it asap so it may be kind of rushed haha..**

**anywayyys tell me what you think like always**

**love your reviews, faves and follows.**

**Next chapter will probably be the longest chapter in this story for it will be SASUSAKU WEDDING ! **

**Defs an interesting one**

**-MarronB**


	10. The Wedding

**So here is the long awaited chapter of SasuSaku wedding! So it's waaaay long and I hope you guys like it :) **

**Just warning you guys its kind of sexual and Shikamaru's kind of OOC :$**

* * *

Five days had finally passed and before anyone could comprehend things, it was the day of the first of the four weddings. It was the wedding of Sasuke and Sakura that was going to take place on this muddy rainy day.

She stared at herself in the mirror, looking at the blue flower that was planted in between her long blonde locks of hair. She placed her hand on the area above her ribs and pulled her dress up, then did a 180 degree turn to take a look at her backside, she frowned.

"I don't think this dress is very flattering." She muttered, tugging it up again. "For one, it keeps falling and two its so silky... it's going to get all wet and stick to me."

"All you do is complain." A male's voice called, she turned her head in his direction and flashed him a glare. He was lying on the bed, with his hands above his head with a lazy half frown, half smile sort of expression.

"Oh shut it! You don't have to worry about anything, you throw on a suit and you look perfect and then there's me! I have to make my hair look nice, my dress, my nails, my face..!" She rambled on, then turned herself back towards the mirror and muttered to herself.

"Perfect, eh?" He called in a amusing tone.

"Oh be quiet." She retorted, applying some powder on her nose, not bothering to think of a clever comeback. "There's a wedding taking place today and all you do is make fun of me!"

"Make fun of?" He called, "really, Ino?" He said, shifting himself into an upright position and removing himself off the bed.

"Oh ju-" She was cut short as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist and pull her close. She dropped the powder on the ground in surprise and widened her eyes, no matter how many times they had intimate contact, she would always be taken aback by it, because... well it was Shikamaru and she wasn't very used to this yet.

Five days ago they had slept together for the first time and she basically saw him everyday since after that, no matter how much she denied it at first, they somehow always ended up sleeping together somehow by the end of the day. She didn't want to seem like a slut, but maybe it was the fact that they had just recently discovered each others bodies, making them so entranced by each other.

Shikamaru on the other hand was equally as addicted to her body as she was too his, she wasn't the first girl he had been romantically involved with, there was Temari before her and Temari pleasured him he wouldn't deny that, but Ino was just so... addicting. He knew since the first time that he had kissed her that he wanted and craved her more. It was on a whole new level now.

"You look stunning." He whispered into her ear, leaning down so that he could bury his face in her neck, planting kisses all over it.

"S-Stop.. wedding in a few hours!" Ino mumbled out, trying to remove herself from his grasp. "Let me go, Shikamaru."

"Not yet." He mumbled, continuing his trail of kisses. "You tease me in that dress, and then expect me to just keep to myself?"

"Tease you?" She snorted, "puh-lease! This dress is horrible!"

"I think it's perfect." He said, letting her go and twirling her around so that she was facing him. His eyes trailed down to her chest and he felt himself get excited... in places.

"You pervert!" Ino blushed, slapping his shoulder. "Stop it and let me get ready! We have to be at the church in a half hour!"

"Ino.." He gave a smirk, walking towards the door to his room to shut it. "That's more than enough time."

* * *

"It's so wet, but the venue is beautiful." Tenten said to the three individuals, standing with her.

"G-Good thing, Sakura didn't decide to do an outdoor wedding. It wouldn't have worked out." Hinata added, she twirled her fingers in the motion she always did and blushed faintly.

"Shikamaru and Ino aren't here yet." Naruto said with his eyes closed in the way he frequently did, "I thought Ino was her maid of honor. Shouldn't she have been here before anyone else?"

"That's right, this wedding isn't very organized, now is it?" Neji Hyuuga added, Tenten shot him a look that told him to shut up.

"Neji! That's rude!" She called, "it's wonderful okay! Sasuke and Sakura, that was something I didn't see coming."

"Yeah me neither.." Naruto mumbled, looking the other way. Hinata cast a worried glance in his direction, then turned away sadly.

It was true that in the last few weeks she had gotten closer to Naruto, they had hung out with one another frequently and it was wonderful. They learned things about each other that they had never known, but most of the time Naruto was almost always talking about Sasuke and Sakura. She knew about Naruto's feelings for Sakura and she wanted to make herself believe that he did not love her anymore, but deep down she knew that he still had something for Sakura. The wedding probably triggered the feelings that Naruto was trying to bury deep inside of him.

"What's wrong with you?" Tenten stated, noticing Naruto's sulkiness and the way Hinata reacted. She was not blind to the fact that Naruto used to like Sakura, and she would be equally worried if she was in Hinata's spot. Any girl would be.

"Eh? Nothing.." Naruto quickly answered back, throwing his hands in front of him in a defensive manner. The brunette was the last girl he wanted to piss off right now, she could be very scary when she wanted too.

"Frankly, I think that Sasuke and Sakura make a wonderful couple." Tenten smirked, she was trying to push Naruto's buttons right now, for unintentionally hurting her friend earlier.

"Hm." Naruto mumbled, he flashed a grin to Hinata and mumbled something about getting a drink, leaving the trio alone.

"Tenten! Did you have to say that!" Hinata half hushed/half shouted at her future cousin in law.

"Hinata! He was being so insensitive to you! It's so obvious to everyone that he's bothered by the fact that Sakura is marrying Sasuke!" Tenten blurted out without thinking.

"Obvious? I didn't notice anything." The elder Hyuuga said, "Naruto has feelings for Sakura?"

"Eh..?" Tenten raised a brow, "you didn't notice? It's so obvious, haven't you noticed the way he's been sulking for the past week."

"No, not really."

Tenten smacked her forehead and told herself she shouldn't be surprised for she was talking to one of the most densest guys in the village, Neji Hyuuga.

It was true that it was still a little bit awkward between them since she poured out her feelings to him, but Tenten just sort of learned to live with it. They moved in together and nothing changed between them, they were still the same friends they were prior to this whole marriage thing. She wasn't sure if she liked the fact that everything was still the same or not though.

"Regardless..." Neji started, "If Naruto truly does have feelings for Sakura.." He continued, pulling up a sleeve of his shirt. "And he hurts Hinata in any way... then he will see the worst of me." He finished, cracking his fist.

"Oh jeez!" Tenten muttered, "you are so dense sometimes, I wonder."

* * *

It was the day she had awaited since she was eight years old, today was the day that Sakura was going to marry the so called love of her life: Sasuke.

Sakura stared at her reflection in the mirror, starting from the bottom.

She wore a long princess style gown, that flowed freely from her waist down, but was tight and adorned in sparkles from the waist up. It had a sweetheart neckline from her chest and made her look more womanly than usual. Her pink hair was put up in a bun, with a few strands flowing freely on either side of her face. She wore light pink eyeshadow with sparkles and winged eye liner to bring out her green eyes, accompanying that was her bubblegum colored lipstick to give her a finish.

Finally, Sakura adjusted the long veil she wore on top of her head. She stared long and hard into her reflection, and asked herself why she was not wearing the final touch to her outfit.

A smile.

Her face was rather emotionless, for she wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not: the wedding.

Blinking frequently a few times, Sakura fought long and hard to keep the tears at bay so that they would not ruin her makeup. Why was she even so sad? She already knew that Sasuke did not love her and perhaps never would, but why was she over exaggerating it now?

Was it because that this marriage had become much more real now that she stood facing her mirror clad in a white dress? Was it because she knew that this marriage would never mean to him what it meant to her? Was it simply because she was frustrated that he did not love her back?

Sakura could ponder that forever and she supposed she would rather not think about it, for it was too painful. For the past five days she had put on a brave front and kept herself busy in work, too push away the thoughts that were coming to her now.

Things between Sasuke and her were maybe somewhat better than they had been a month ago, but still... it was nowhere near what it should be for someone getting married today. They were nothing close to being in love.. or at least he wasn't.

Could she really go through with this?

"Sakura?" A voice called, breaking her out of her thoughts. Sakura turned her head in the direction of the voice and turned to face Ino, "It's time."

"Just a minute.." Sakura answered back with a fake smile, "I need a minute.."

"Of course." Ino answered, "whenever you're ready." And then she disappeared out of the room.

It was time.

It was time for her to do this.

* * *

The church was absolutely stunning thanks to Ino and all of the other girls, they had stayed at the church till very late last night and made sure not to leave till it was absolutely perfect.

There were long white tresses hanging from the ceiling in just about every direction, adorned with pink flowers and red roses. There were clear lights like those that hung around during Christmas placed on the front of the church where the arch lay. The church was filled with just about every ninja in Konoha and everybody was looking amazing.

First Hinata walked down the aisle with her arm linked with Naruto, she tried to feign a smile but it definitely was not working. Naruto on the other hand, had his eyes darting all over the place as if he was trying to keep himself preoccupied.

Next came Neji and Tenten, Neji linked arms with Tenten like the gentlemen he was, Tenten securely pressed herself against him and flashed a smile for the crowd that was eyeing them.

"Tenten." Neji muttered, Tenten looked in his direction. "You're a little too close." He mumbled, looking the other way. Tenten looked down and noticed her chest was pressed against his arm in a rather awkward way.

"Oh.. sorry." She mumbled, blushing as well and avoiding eye contact.

Shikamaru and Ino came next, for someone who loved weddings, Ino seemed rather on edge. She kept fumbling with her dress as she walked with Shikamaru down the aisle, and at one point stopped to adjust her shoe.

"What's wrong?" Shikamaru whispered to her, so only she could hear.

"It's this damn dress! Sakura made me a so called special one, but I wish I had gotten the one's Hinata and Tenten are wearing! This one has no straps and is so uncomfortable!" Ino answered.

"Hm, I like this one." Shikamaru answered, "it suits you."

"Oh hush." She muttered, knowing very well what he meant. She was already annoyed with this damn dress, too top it off she was so rushed coming over to the church thanks to Shikamaru and his damn effect on her.

They reached the end of the aisle and parted their respective ways. Sasuke already stood there dressed in a black and white tux, looking very nice mind you. He had no visible expression like always, he just stared off into the distance.

The tune of the piano indicated that the bride was to enter the church now, everybody rose from their seats to turn back and look at the approaching bride.

Five Seconds

Six Seconds

And there she was, the most beautiful bride he had ever seen. She was enchanting the way she had adorned herself, he couldn't help but smile at her although she wasn't looking in his direction. She was looking at the floor, out of shyness, happiness... no one would ever know. Everybody else stared in awe but at that moment he felt as if time had frozen and only he was there with her.

She eventually walked up to the altar, and walked past all of her friends. She eventually cast her eyes on him and gave him a reassuring smile and then walked past him to stand opposite her groom.

She was beautiful but she was not his to call beautiful, so he smiled and cheered just like he had been doing for the past month. Naruto knew it was wrong to feel this way about his best friends fiancee and that it was not fair to Hinata, but he could not help it anymore. Everything he had been trying to suppress for the past month had risen to the surface, and he had no idea what to do.

Hinata worriedly glanced in Naruto's direction, she knew what was going on in his mind and she saw the way that Naruto was looking in Sakura's direction. She couldn't help but wish that he would look at her like that, oh what she would give...

Sakura's eyes were downcast again as she stood facing Sasuke, he said nothing to her of course. No reassuring smile, nothing of that sort.. could she really hope to spend the rest of her life with him?

"We are gathered here today to join Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha in holy matrimony." The priest began, "if you two could link hands." He said to the pair, Sakura hesitantly reached her hands forward as did Sasuke quickly.

Sakura still had her eyes downcast, afraid that if she looked up she would back out and inevitably run away. She blinked rapidly and tried to get rid of the lump forming in her throat.

The priest continued on and on, Sakura tuned out of it for the most part. Until it came to one fateful part.

"Sasuke Uchiha, do you take Sakura Haruno to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"Hn, I do." Sasuke stated simply.

"And Sakura Haruno, do you take Sasuke Uchiha to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

She found herself unable to form any words.

"I..." Sakura mumbled, looking over at the crowd. She saw her parents smiling at her with joy, she saw Naruto and the others looking at her happily and then she realized something.

She had parents, she had friends, she had people to fall back on.

But Sasuke.. he had no one.

He only had her.

And in that moment she felt stronger than ever and she realized that this is what she had to do.

"I do." Sakura repeated.

"Then by the power vested in me, you are now husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride." The priest stated.

Sakura finally mustered the courage to look her husband in the eye, she slowly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, placing a soft kiss on his lips. He lightly pushed his lips on top of hers and then pulled away, Sakura faced the crowd with a smile and then they were married.

* * *

"You know..." Sakura started, removing her veil and throwing off her shoes. "I almost chickened out back there."

"Hn." He replied, taking a seat on the couch and reclining slightly.

"Maybe if you could be more supportive." Sakura said, "you know, reassuring?"

"Hn."

Sakura shot him a glare and continued removing pieces of her clothing.

"Are you ready for the reception?" Sakura asked him.

"Yes."

Sakura shot another glare in his direction and entered the room to remove the heavy wedding dress she was adorned in so she could put on the small black dress she had for the reception.

"Damn zipper." Sakura muttered to herself, unable to reach the zipper on her back. "So close..." She growled, but could not reach it. "Who makes these things." She said, a few more tugs later she realized she only had one alternative. "Sasuke!" She called out, "Sasuke, come here!"

After a few seconds, said boy arrived in her room wearing a cool expression. He raised a brow looking at her current situation, standing in front of him with hands behind her back and half her dress pulled up.

"I'm kind of stuck." Sakura mumbled, "can you um.. unzip me."

"Hn." He smirked, "and if I don't?"

"Then you can go to the reception by yourself!" Sakura crossed her arms, he made his way over to her and stood behind her, a zip was heard and Sakura felt the dress beginning to loosen up. She placed her hands in front of her chest to prevent it from falling, blushing she motioned for him to leave the room, but he didn't budge.

"Do you need anything else?" He said mockingly.

"Out!" Sakura shouted, "we're going to be late for the reception!" Sakura could feel the dress beginning to fall and unsuccessfully tried to hold the dress up. "Can you leave now..."

"Hn, it's nothing I haven't seen before." Sasuke stated, and then turned to leave the room.

Sakura shot the back of his head a glare and blushed a deep red, knowing fully well he was talking about the night they spent together. The night she could not remember at all, finally letting the dress fall to the ground, Sakura threw the remainder of her garments off and slid into the short evening dress laid out on the bed for her by Ino, most likely.

Emerging out of the room, fifteen minutes later, Sakura was now ready for her reception. Sasuke was still sitting on the sofa with a bored expression and got up immediately when she entered the living room.

"Let's go then." He stated, she nodded and the pair were off and out of their house to the reception hall that they had booked.

"Oh shoot, it's pouring." Sakura said, pointing to the sky. "What do we do now?"

"What do you mean?" He asked her, obliviously.

"What I mean is it's raining like that! I don't want to sound like some annoying girl but my dress is going to get soaked if I walk in that!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Hn, it's less than five minutes in distance if we run, you'll be fine."

But Sakura furrowed her brows, placed her hands on her hips and stood adamantly.

"I am not walking, more or less running in that!" She exclaimed, "it was already wet enough when we got here, but now it's actually raining!"

"Then go inside and get an umbrella." Sasuke stated, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Either that or you can stay home."

"Jerk." Sakura muttered under her breath and turned back inside to go find an umbrella.

It was weird, the relationship she shared with Sasuke. One minute she was freaking out about him never going to change and how he would never love her and the next they had this playful friendship that she enjoyed. He teased her and she teased him, well that was the way she liked to look at things.

Maybe if she just stopped worrying about what isn't there and instead focused on what she did have with him she would be a lot happier. But that was almost next to impossible, for she found herself wishing every second of every day that he would show some sort of feeling to her... she just wanted to open his shell and she knew it.

It was pathetic really, it has been over eight years since he left the village and she still could not get over him. She knew that, she knew that it wasn't healthy or good for her to do this. Ino got over him, so did all the other girls who held an infatuation for the Uchiha, it was just Sakura who could never push those lingering feelings aside. No matter how many other boys came her way; Naruto, Lee... she always turned them down because subconsciously she still loved the Uchiha.

Picking up the umbrella and heading back outside, she smiled sadly to herself.

She was now Sakura Uchiha and she knew she would either make him love her or die trying.

* * *

"Oh my god, do you know how obvious it was!" Ino shouted, punching Shikamaru in the shoulder. They were almost at the reception hall now, walking there slowly they would probably arrive in ten minutes or so. Shikamaru held an umbrella high enough for the pair so that they would not get drenched in the rain.

"What are you talking about?" He sighed, the blonde could be rather annoying at times.

"You dummie!" Ino exclaimed, "when we arrived at the church! You know how many funny looks I was getting!"

"Funny looks? Why?" Shikamaru asked her, raising a brow.

"Because.. because of you that's why!" Ino shouted, "I walked into the church, frantically looking for Tenten and Hinata and in a hurry from your house, I forgot to zip up my damn dress!"

"Oh." Shikamaru mumbled, "what's the problem with that? It's not like the dress was loose on you."

"Are you calling me fat, Shikamaru Nara?" Ino said threateningly.

"What? No! I just meant that the dress was almost a perfect fit on you, what does the zipper have to do with anything?"

"The zipper was on the damn front of the dress! Can't you see?!" She exclaimed, pointing at the front of her dress which indeed did sport a zipper. "I was wondering why everybody was staring at me, sheesh. If it wasn't for Tenten and Hinata, I would've walked down the aisle looking like this! All your fault!"

"What a troublesome woman you are, Ino." Shikamaru sighed, "I told you we would get here on time, yet you insisted on rushing anyways."

"Well excuse me!" She pouted, turning her face away from him. He sighed again at how frustrating she was, but couldn't help but sport a smile simultaneously.

Although right now, their relationship was mainly just sexual, the blonde had started to grow on him as well. He almost looked forward to their bickering over nothing as the days passed by.

Yup, she was definitely something.

* * *

"N-Naruto..? Are you alright?" Hinata asked the blonde next to her, out of the four pairs of ninja they were the only ones who had arrived at the reception hall. Naruto was still rather sulky, but he was talking to Hinata nonetheless. She wanted to help him, she really did, but she had no idea where to begin or what to do in terms of his situation. He didn't want to admit it to anyone and he probably never would, but it was obvious just about to everyone a mile away - maybe minus Neji.

"I'm fine." He muttered.

"D-Do you want to come over... for lunch tomorrow?" She asked him, trying to change the subject and make him feel a little better.

"Mmm.." He let out, and that was it. Naruto went back to crossing his arms across his chest and staring off into the distance.

'He wasn't like this before... just all of a sudden..' Hinata thought to herself, she always made sure to keep an eye on the blonde, ever since they were kids. She had noticed that ever since this whole marriage jutsu was placed upon them, that Naruto hadn't been too bothered about Sakura marrying Sasuke. It had just been since the days to their wedding got closer and closer.

Either that or Naruto had been silently hurting, just choosing to keep his feelings to himself.

"Naruto...?" Hinata said again, "I know... what-"

"Look at them." Naruto interrupted, "they're here." Hinata turned her head to see who he was talking about and noticed that Sasuke and Sakura had arrived. "Let's go." He muttered, leading her to the other couple.

...

...

..

.

"Hey Hinata!" Sakura flashed her friend a smile and engulfed her in a hug.

"H-Hello Sakura." Hinata responded, trying her best to feign a smile.

"Naruto." Sakura said, giving the blonde a wave which he halfheartedly returned.

"Congrats." Naruto mumbled, "you look nice, Sakura."

"Thanks!" She grinned, unaware of how much this was bothering the blonde. "This place looks amazing. Did you guys really do this?!"

"Y-Yes.. Tenten, Ino and I." Hinata answered.

"Speaking of which, where are they?" Sakura asked, looking around for her other two friends.

"Here!" A voice called and next thing Sakura knew, a heavy weight was thrown on her. "Sorry! Shikamaru here, just walks soooo slow!"

"Feh, troublesome woman." Shikamaru said from behind the blonde.

"We only invited a few people here, much less than the church." Ino grinned, "just all of our ninja classmates, and a few other friends."

"Phew, I was beginning to get a little bit of a stage fright." Sakura answered, "I thought there would be a crowd of people and you would make us give a speech or something."

"A speech?" Ino smirked, "oh noo... I have something much better planned."

"W-What...?"

"Just take a seat, you will know soon enough." Ino grinned, pushing Sakura in the direction of a table.

Sasuke and Sakura left for their table and that just left Hinata, Naruto, Shikamaru and Ino.

"So what have you exactly planned?" Shikamaru asked her, noticing she still wore a smirk.

"Oh you'll see.." She giggled, "Hinata, c'mon we got some planning to do! Where's that Tenten..."

* * *

"I'm sorry." Tenten said for the umpteenth time.

"Tenten, it's fine. As your teammate and friend you shouldn't expect me not too help you." The Hyuuga replied.

"It's just so... typical girl! I mean it's not something I like to particularly fit the image of." Tenten mumbled, "thank you though."

"It's quite alright, but how did this happen?" Neji asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I was rushing over to the reception hall to get there quickly, but these damn heels.. I've never really worn them before and before I knew what was happening, I tripped and sprained my ankle and broke the heel." Tenten explained, "I didn't know who else too call.."

"Hn." Neji answered, "you should be more careful next time."

"Yeah.." Tenten mumbled, this was quite an embarrassing situation. She was wearing a rather short dress and Neji had come to help her when she tripped and was currently carrying her to the reception hall.

* * *

"So everybody, thank you so much for coming!" Ino said into the microphone, by now just about everybody had arrived and taken their seats. "Food is on the left, liquor is on the right! Music will start playing now, have a wonderful night!"

The music began and everybody began to get into the groove of things, punch was distributed and everything began to flow. It was not your average reception where there were speeches, first dances and all of that. Ino knew that was not something Sakura and Sasuke were particularly fond of, so she decided to just make a fun party instead.

"What the heck is this?" Chouji asked the blonde, pointing at some weird cans on a table.

"Hehe.." Ino giggled, grabbing a can and aiming it towards Chouji's direction. "It's silly string."

"Ino!" Chouji exclaimed, trying to cover himself from the silly string that was being sprayed on him by Ino.

"Look at all the fun stuff I came up with!" Ino sang happily, putting the can back on the table and pointing around the hall. "There's a station where everybody takes pictures of themselves and places it on the wall... beer pong... some other games and oh my favorite!" She paused. "I set up a fun little game."

"What kind of game?" Chouji asked her, grabbing a sandwich and taking a bite.

"Have you heard of never have I ever?" Ino asked, "it's basically that, its sort of going to be an icebreaker for everybody. I'll call everyone over there in a little while after everyone is settled."

"Where do you come up with this stuff?" Chouji said in between bites.

"A party host has to make it fun, okay!" Ino crossed her arms. "It's been long enough right? I'm going over there!" She said, rushing over to the never have I ever table.

"It's been ten minutes since you gave your speech..." Chouji mumbled to himself.

* * *

"Okay everyone! We're going to play a little game of never have I ever! If you want to participate please come over to this table right away!" Ino shouted into the microphone she carried with her everywhere.

After a group of them gathered around the table, Ino looked satisfied.

"So I'm pretty sure you all know how this game works." Ino started, "one person says something along the lines of... oh let's say.. never have I ever drank with my friends.. something they have never done." Ino paused, "and pretty much those who have done it, take a shot of their drink."

"So where's the drinks?" Kiba said from the group of them.

"Chouji is bringing it, sheesh." Ino shot him a glare.

"Just makin' sure." He mumbled

"Here, Ino!" Chouji called, carrying three bottles of Smirnoff vodka with him. "Got it." He said, placing it on the table in front of everyone. Ino distributed cups to everyone and filled all the cups up halfway.

"So.. we have a solid group, then." Ino giggled, "I'll start." She started, "never have I ever got married!"

"That was lame." Naruto stated, "not creative at all!"

"Oh quiet! Drink up!" Ino smirked, glancing at Sasuke and Sakura, who both took a large sip of their drink.

"Well then I think I'll go next." Sakura said with an evil smirk in Ino's direction, "never have I ever had blonde hair!"

"Oh please!" Ino retorted back, taking a large gulp of her drink. Naruto also took a large gulp of his drink as well.

"Are you two seriously playing without us?" Tenten called from one side of the table, Neji letting her go gently, she took a seat on a chair at the table.

"Where were you guys?" Ino asked, with a smirk.

"Long story." Tenten sighed, "pass me a drink."

"Well then... want to go next?" Ino asked her, passing both Neji and Tenten a drink.

"Yeah sure." Tenten answered, "never have I ever had sex."

"Tenten!" Hinata blushed, "t-that's a very pers-"

"Oh come on Hinata, we're all good friends here." Tenten snorted, "drink up, guys!"

Shikamaru and Ino exchanged glances and took sips from their respective cups, as did Sakura hesitantly. Sasuke also took a sip of his drink, but seem unfazed by the question.

"Wow.. you guys are all not virgins..?!" Chouji exclaimed, "wow... never woulda guessed.." just as Chouji finished speaking, Naruto took a sip of his drink as well.

"Okay, sooo who's next?" Ino giggled, she was obviously a lightweight and had already had two shots and a bunch prior to coming to this table, so she was the first to start feeling a buzz. "Shikamaru! You go!"

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, "fine then, never have I ever kissed a boy."

"Are you trying to get me drunk or something?!" Ino exclaimed, taking a large sip of her drink.

"You're the one drinking it in large amounts." Shikamaru stated, Sakura took a sip after that and began giggling. "What's up with her?"

"Hehe... Naruto and Sasuke have to drink up as well." Sakura giggled, reminding both Naruto and Sasuke of the painful memory of when the pair shared an accidental kiss.

Sasuke and Naruto both shot Sakura a glare and then glared at each other, but nonetheless they chugged down a large portion of their drink.

"In that case, Sakura." Sasuke started, "never have I ever been so drunk that I failed to recall the explicit events of the night before."

"Clever." Sakura muttered, taking a shot. Almost everyone followed suite as they all pretty much had that experience before.

"Hinata, why don't you say one?" Tenten asked the shy Hyuuga.

"Erm... no thanks, T-Tenten.. I'd rather not." Hinata answered, "I.."

"That's fine! I have another!" Ino exclaimed, "never have I ever freakin-"

"You're done for tonight." Shikamaru interrupted, taking the cup of liquor out of her hands. "C'mon."

"Shikamaru! What are you doing?!" Ino slurred, "I'm not even drunk!"

"Troublesome.. let's go get some air." He replied, "come."

"Hmmm..." Ino placed a hand on her chin, "kay!" and the pair left the table to go outside to get some air and calm the blonde down.

"So.. does that mean our game is done?" Kiba asked, "I had a really good one too."

"I guess so, don't want everyone to be hammered before the night even begins, right?" Tenten answered. "I'm going to go over to the bar.. see what sorts of drinks they have, anyone want too join?"

"Yeah." Naruto said, getting up to walk with the limping Tenten over to the bar.

Everyone disbanded into their separate directions; some were dancing, some were drinking and others ate.

* * *

"I can't believe you said that!" Sakura shouted, "that was so mean!"

"Hn, you started it by trying to embarrass me." Sasuke stated, "don't tell me that you're drunk off that?"

"Of course not!"

"Hn, really?" Sasuke asked casually.

"Yes! I could keep drinking all night long!" Sakura said, furrowing her brows.

"Prove me wrong then." Sasuke said, "we're going to have a drinking contest."

"You're on, Uchiha." Sakura smirked.

And it began.

* * *

A few hours later, it was the late hours of the night. Many people had left by now, and many of them remained.

"I'm so freaking drunk right now." Naruto slurred, "how did this happ-happen?!"

"I don't know.. I don't know.." Tenten answered, equally as drunk as the knucklehead ninja. "You said... no I said let's go to the bar..."

"Yeah, and then we drank."

"Yes."

"It's not fair..."

"W-What isn't?"

But Naruto did not reply, he simply slammed his head against the bar counter and stayed that way for quite some time.

"Are you two ready to go home?" Neji asked the pair, Tenten turned her head to look at him and noticed how firmly he stood on the ground with his arms crossed.. he looked so boss, she thought.

"Mhmm, but I can't walk." Tenten giggled, "soooo you either have to carry me or I'll sleep here!"

"Tenten, quit being a bother." Neji stated, "here." He murmured, placing one of her arms around his shoulders. "Naruto, we are going to be on our way now.. see you later then?"

"Buh-bye." Naruto said without lifting his head from the counter. Neji rolled his eyes and dragged the drunk girl home where he was sure he would be even more annoyed with her than he was now.

* * *

"You got me drunk." Sakura stated, "you did this on purpose!"

"Would you quiet down?" The Uchiha growled.

They had left the reception hall a long time ago, after they had their drinking contest, the pair were both equally as drunk. Sasuke however was much better at masking it than Sakura was, she was a mess and he decided he best take her home before she did something stupid to embarrass the pair, so home is where they were currently.

"You're so rude, oh my god!" Sakura shouted back, "you get me drunk and you be all mean to me..."

Sasuke shot her a glare and then unsuccessfully tried entering the bedroom, choosing to leave her sprawled on the sofa for she was beginning to get very annoying now. But a pair of arms wrapped around his waist, preventing him from doing so.

"Wait!" She exclaimed, "don't you dare...!"

"Sakura, let go." He instructed, but she did not budge. He could easily overpower her and enter the room, but his drunk self was not thinking correctly and instead he chose to simply keep on walking, dragging the pinkette with him.

Sasuke dragged her into the room and she finally let go once they were inside, getting up onto her feet she began punching his shoulders.

"You jerk!" She cried, "you know... I almost didn't marry you today."

"Sakura, go to sleep." He ordered, "I'm tired."

"You are such a jerk sometimes, like I don't get it." Sakura started, "you act like some isolated, egotistical-"

"Shut up!" He growled, raising his voice. "I don't care what you think of me, and I never will."

"Oh." Sakura mumbled, in her normal state she probably would have been really hurt or angry at that statement, but her current state of mind could not care less. "Too bad, then." She paused, "I was looking forward to resurrecting your clan."

"Sakura, enough." Sasuke stated, "go to sleep.."

"Or what?" She smirked, placing her hands on her hips. "What will you do Sasuke Uchiha?"

"... don't push it."

"C'mon... I want to see what you're capable of!" Sakura teased, pouting her soft plump lips.

"Sakura... sleep now." He ordered, turning away from her to get to the bed, but once again she stopped him by wrapping her arms around his stomach and pressing herself against his back.

"Sasuke..." She started, "I'm here."

He clenched his fist, trying to control himself. He knew what she was doing, but even in his drunk state he knew that this was wrong, he was not going to take advantage of a drunk girl.. but she was being so damn persistent and that damn dress..

"I know you want too.." She mumbled, "it's okay its our wedding night."

"Quiet." He growled, twisting around so that he faced her, in a quick motion he threw her atop the bed and slammed his lips on top of hers.

* * *

"How did we get stuck cleaning the hall?" Ino sighed, scrubbing the floor with a mop. No matter how fast she had gotten drunk earlier, it had worn off rather quickly, Shikamaru made sure of that. He took her outside to get some air, gave her some water and food and within no time she was back to normal...

But the others? They were all pretty wasted and that just left the two of them plus Hinata for the cleanup.

"What a drag." Shikamaru complained, lifting some dirty plates and cups from a table and throwing them in the trash. You would never catch him dead doing any sort of chore at home, the only reason he was even helping now was so he could get some as soon as possible and go to sleep.

"Well we're almost done." Ino said, "everyone left too, so that's good... except erm..." She said, pointing to the vicinity of the bar where Naruto laid.

"I-I'll make sure Naruto get's home safe.." Hinata said, "I'll help you guys clean up first."

"It's no big deal." said Ino, "you can go get him home, I'm sure that will be hard enough. We'll manage on our own here."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Oh, o-okay then.. I'll see you guys later." Hinata said, bidding them farewell and going towards Naruto's direction.

"This is going to take all night." Shikamaru whined.

"Yeah, but I am the maid of honor. It's the least I can do." Ino grinned, "stop complaining and hurry up so we can go home."

"Feh, troublesome." Shikamaru muttered under his breath.

* * *

Hinata had finally managed to reach Naruto's apartment, it was a long and tiresome journey. Naruto was at least double her weight and he had fallen quite a few times and was far from carrying his own weight. But despite the difficulties, she had made it to his room and tucked him into his bed, smiling once she turned around to leave, but a hand gripped her wrist.

"...stay." Naruto whispered, his eyes were still closed however. "I want you too stay."

"N-Naruto..?" Hinata whispered back, heart beating like crazy.

"Y-You... you took care of me, tonight." Naruto continued, "I know you love me and not that teme Sasuke."

"W-What..?"

"Isn't that right... Sakura?" Naruto continued, pulling Hinata forward into an embrace.

"N-Naruto..." Hinata whispered, her voice cracking. She could feel a few tears begin to form in her eyes, she couldn't help but feel both sad and helpless at the fact that Naruto still had feelings for Sakura and helpless because she couldn't do anything to ease his pain.

"Stay here." He continued.

"Naruto... i-its-"

"Shhh.."

She found herself unable to form words, all she could hear was her heart beating so much that she was sure it was going to jump out of her chest.

But one thing was established...

Naruto did not love her..

No..

He wasn't even as so much as considering her..

Because no matter how much time they spent together..

He would always have feelings for Sakura.

So Hinata did the only logical thing she could do, she pushed out of his grasp and ran like hell out of his room and out of his life.

She knew what she had to do next.

* * *

"Done! Phew!" Ino said, wiping sweat away from her forehead and collapsing on the floor next to Shikamaru, who was already sitting down.

"Only took forever." Shikamaru muttered.

"It was worth it, I mean at our wedding don't you think Sakura would do the same for us?" Ino grinned, but the grin faded away when she noticed Shikamaru look the other way. "..Shikamaru?"

"Hm?"

For the past few days their relationship had been very nice - she wasn't even sure if she could call it a relationship. All they did was taunt each other and sleep together.. so what exactly were they? She did not want to spoil it by asking him that because she enjoyed the time they spent together no matter what. But she also did not want to give herself false hope that one day she could be something more with Shikamaru, only for it to never happen.

"It's nothing." She gave him a small smile.

* * *

**So that's the chapter .. I hope you liked it, I tried to include the other couples as well.. but I don't know if it was good or not. Some of the characters may seem OOC and I apologize but yeah :$**

**Next Chapter will take place the next day .. and will include Hinata centric part, some SasuSaku and ShikaIno of course**

**Tell me what you think!**

**-MarronB**


	11. Prelude

**So um hey its been a while, just been busy with life and all.**

**So the ending for the Naruto manga was uploaded and well… I am happy for it for one of the couples I support but sad for the other :( Oh well thats what fan fiction is for.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter, I don't really think its that good and don't really know where I'm going with this right now haha, so if you guys have any suggestions feel free to throw them out there.**

* * *

"Why do I always wake up like this." Sakura said, sniffling. She was wrapped in a heavy blanket and was sipping on a cup of coffee.

"Because you drink too much." Sasuke answered from the kitchen, he was stirring some sort of different things together.

"It was your fault this time!" Sakura retorted, "Mr. Let's have a drinking contest."

"Hn, you don't see me complaining about how drunk I am." Sasuke answered.

"Jerk." Sakura mumbled, "so.."

".."

"We're married, eh?" Sakura gave a small chuckle, "I did not expect it to be like this."

"What do you mean?"

"Well... ever since I was little I always pictured myself married to be something like a fairytale. You know, in love and all of that stuff?" She began, "I did not expect myself to be thrown into a jutsu like that."

"So who did you see yourself getting married too?" He asked her, still stirring the cup. Sasuke did not want to be too nosy, but the words had just sort of rolled off of his tongue.

"Oh.. no one in particular." Sakura answered, taking a sip of her coffee. "Naruto, maybe? I don't know."

"Hn, Naruto." Sasuke smirked, "highly unlikely."

"Why's that?" Sakura asked, raising a brow.

"Naruto may have liked you but there was no desire on your part to be with him."

"Actually..." Sakura blushed, "at one point in my life, there was."

"Oh, is that so?"

"A few years back, it's kind of an odd story." She said, placing a finger on her cheek and blushing.

"Hn, suit yourself." Sasuke answered, drinking from the cup in his hands. Sure, he was somewhat curious, but he did not want to push it and make it seem like he really wanted too know. He was Sasuke Uchiha afterall, but it did spike up his curiousity. Naruto and Sakura?

"I mean I'll tell you!" Sakura blurted out, "you are my husband after all... you have the right to know."

"Hn." He answered.

"A few years ago... I mean..." Sakura began to turn red, "well we got home from a mission, and I invited Naruto over." She paused, "we were seventeen I think."

"Get to the point?" Sasuke interrupted, "I have many things to take care of today, Sakura."

"He came over.. we had drinks.. one thing led to another and well.." Sakura averted her gaze, Sasuke knew what she was implying, subconsciously clenching his fist. "A-And then.."

"What?"

"I had a pregnancy scare... I was convinced that I was pregnant and that Naruto was the father.. I was absolutely convinced on spending my life with him. Forcing myself, telling myself that I loved him."

"Did you?" Sasuke asked, raising a brow.

"I don't know." Sakura mumbled, she placed a hand on her stomach. "And then a couple days later, I took a pregnancy test." She paused, closing her eyes. "It read positive."

Sasuke choked on the coffee he was drinking and stared at her in disbelief. He walked over to where she was and towered above her.

"And then?"

"... then I was confused for a few days.. I didn't tell anyone, I didn't know what to do." Sakura mumbled, "then we were assigned another mission..." she paused again, "we got ambushed, I got hurt and..."

"You lost the baby." Sasuke finished for her.

"Yes." She answered, wiping away a stray tear from her eye. "I never told Naruto about it, or Ino or anybody for that matter. I just put it behind me."

"I'll be back." Sasuke mumbled, grabbing his jacket from the coat rack and proceeding out of the front door, slamming it behind him.

Sakura placed a hand on her mouth and silently cried to herself, she hadn't wanted to bring this up because she knew he would judge her after this, but she felt worse keeping something like this from him.

* * *

"Wake up sleepy head."

"Hmm?"

"The Hokage wants to see you."

"Troublesome."

Shikamaru opened his eyes gruggingly to see Ino's face as close as humanely possible to his own.

"She's not someone who should be kept waiting, you know." Ino said again.

"Five minutes."

"Kay, I'll prepare breakfast." Ino smirked and removed herself from his bed and skipped over to the kitchen, too be honest these past few days had been extra good to her. She knew that she was not at the perfect stage in terms of relationships with Shikamaru, but she was so happy. She had everything she wanted in him, she didn't know when it had happened; but Ino had found herself to be in love with him.

Throwing some toast in the toaster and cracking and egg into a pan, Ino got started on breakfast. Tsunade hadn't sounded too happy earlier when she called for Shikamaru, Ino couldn't help but furrow her brows a little bit in annoyance how it was always Shikamaru they needed.

"What does she want anyways?" He asked her, appearing behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

"I don't know." She grinned, "she just said for you to be at her office asap."

"Better get going then."

"Eat something, first?"

Shikamaru sighed, "better see what she wants, you know her."

"Okay, be quick."

Shikamaru left the house through the front door and Ino found herself grinning again, staring off into space.

She was happy!

* * *

"Lady Tsunade? You called for me?" Shikamaru said, appearing in the hokage's office like he so often did. Tsunade sat with her elbows on her desk, interlocking her hands with her fingers, she looked rather grim.

"Ah, Shikamaru. Please sit." Shizune said from the corner of the room, Shikamaru looked back and forth between the women but did as he was told.

"Shikamaru." Tsunade finally said, "there is a problem."

"Yeah..?" Shikamaru asked, raising a brow.

"The village hidden in the rain." Tsunade started, "have declared war."

'What?!" Shikamaru shouted, raising from his seat at once. "Why? On who?!"

"You know there have always been tensions between the respective villages." Tsunade started, "and on the sand village."

"What? Sand village?" Shikamaru asked with a bewildered expression. "I'm confused, Lady Tsunade."

"You already know about that attack that happened on the sand! When you went over to the village to provide them with aid? And you remember how the Akatsuki was behind it?"

"Yeah."

"The village hidden in the rain was attacked, and they only know of the name of one member. Sasori of the Red Sand." Tsunade said.

"And... Sasori is affiliated with the Sand." Shikamaru finished for her, putting two and two together. "The rain village is angry with the Sand because that is where Sasori originated from."

"Yes." Tsunade nodded, "there were already tensions and this made things much worse, but there is more.."

"Amongst who was slaughtered in the attack on the rain village, was their leader." Shizune continued, "they lost a lot of men but they lost their leader as well."

"They demanded... the leader of the Sand. They wanted an eye for an eye, in other words the death of the KazeKage." Tsunade said.

"But they didn't fulfill those demands, right?" Shikamaru asked, Tsunade nodded.

"No they didn't, so the rain village declared war on the Sand."

"Since when?"

"Officially yesterday morning. We were not formally informed till this morning though." Tsunade stated, "now that you know everything, you should know that we are going to support the Sand village one hundred percent. We may not be at war with them directly but we will fight against them, if the need may be."

"We have already secured our borders in case of an attack and sent some forces to back up the Sand." Shizune added.

"So then, why am I here?" Shikamaru furrowed his brows at the stupidity of the rain village for declaring war on the Sand.

"I will be sending you out with a squad to the rain village, this evening. You will be sent there to negotiate, but it could prove to be very dangerous for we don't know where they stand with us." Tsunade ordered, "because of that I have chosen an expertise squad."

"Who does it consist of?"

"A five man squad; Neji Hyuga, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Tenten and yourself."

"Alright then." Shikamaru answered the hokage.

"You have a few hours till you are to leave. Please properly equip and prepare yourself, this mission is not to be taken lightly."

"Understood."

* * *

After Shikamaru left the hokage's office, he spread the message around to the other five that were to join him on the mission, he wanted everybody to gather at his place so he could discuss everything with them in detail.

"Wow, I can't believe so much happened without us even knowing last night." Ino said to Shikamaru, she was waiting for him at his place when he returned, he informed her of everything and what was supposed too happen.

"Yes, it was pretty unsuspected. Hopefully the sand village is alright." Shikamaru replied, his focus was not with Ino, he was carefully trying to figure out what would be a good approach to negotiate with the rain village and find out where they stand with them.

"Sakura's here." Ino mumbled, shifting her gaze to the pinkette that had just walked in through the door. She looked rather pale and there were many bags under her eyes, accompanying that was a glum expression.

"Hey." Sakura said, giving a small smile.

"Whoa, you look awful, Miss Newly Wed. Rough morning?" Ino asked her with concern, Sakura nodded and took a seat on the couch. "Where's the groom?"

"I don't know, he took off before I woke up." Sakura lied, thinking that this was not the right time to tell Ino about what had took place in the morning.

"Hey guys!" Tenten said, appearing in the doorway with Neji. Both looked unfazed, Tenten seemed rather upbeat. "So what's this sudden mission about?"

"I'll let you know, as soon as Sasuke and Naruto arrive." Shikamaru answered.

"We're right here!" Naruto announced, with a grin. Next to him was Sasuke, who wore a neutral expression.

"Alright everybody get comfortable, this is a long story." Shikamaru started, once everybody was seated he told them of the tensions and Sasori and everything that Lady Tsunade had said to him earlier.

"So, now what we have to do is make sure that we figure out what they are up too when it comes to us." Shikamaru stated, "we have to figure out the truth from the lies and we have to be prepared for an attack. This could prove to be very bad for us, or very good, we don't know yet."

"What's the plan?" Naruto asked.

"We aren't going to state what we are going too do directly, obviously." Shikamaru started, "I have a little bit of a plan."

"Explain?" Neji asked.

"We are going to go undercover as poor villagers from a rural village. We will claim to be from an area that is between the sand village and the rain village and claim that our loved ones were slaughtered in an attack, when the two villages were fighting. Once we are safely trusted by them we will find our more information." Shikamaru stated.

"Simple enough, but will it work?" Tenten asked, "I mean we don't really look like poor villagers.."

"Already taken care of." Ino gave a smirk, she pointed to a large crate. "There are different outfits in there, just change into one of those and there is no doubt you look like a poor villager."

"Yes, there is only one problem..." Shikamaru trailed off, "Naruto, Sasuke.."

"Hm?" The pair said at the same time.

"You two are very famous, well internationally... Naruto because you hold the spirit of the nine tailed fox inside of you and Sasuke because.."

"Yes, understood." Sasuke cut him off, "then?"

"We'll probably just have to risk it, give you a hat or something?" Ino giggled, "I'm sure they won't be able too recognize you too much. It should be fine, right?"

"Hopefully." Shikamaru muttered, "any questions?"

"So I'm just a little bit confused, sorry. What exactly is our aim?" Tenten asked.

"Tenten were you not listening at all?" Neji interjected, "we are too find out if the rain village is planning an attack on the leaf, where they stand with the sand, if we are in any immediate danger."

"I see, but wouldn't it make more sense for us to stay here and guard the village? I mean we are all some of the strongest ninja the leaf has too offer. Besides, ninjas like Kakashi, Gai sensei.. they are all gone to the village borders, so isn't that putting the village in more danger?" Tenten asked.

"It's the hokage's decision. She must have an important reason for sending us specifically there, the village should be alright. With so many strong ninja's guarding the borders, theres no way anybody can get in." Shikamaru stated, "alright, anything else?"

They shook their heads no.

"Alright then, take your clothing and meet me back here at five o clock. We are going to leave then, it could take a few days so make sure you say goodbye too everyone." Shikamaru stated, the group nodded and took their clothing and respectively left the house.

"Well you're optimistic." Ino snorted, once everyone had left. "Say goodbye to everyone? You're making it seem like you all are not going to come back to the village."

"Ino, I don't think you realize how serious the situation is." Shikamaru sighed, "the rain village knows that we are good allies with the Sand, there isn't a doubt in my mind that they are just waiting for us to provide some sort of aid to the sand so they have a reason too attack us."

"I see."

"And the Hokage has already sent aid to the Sand, the rain could very well be planning an attack on us as we speak. We all have to be alert and ready."

"I didn't think about it that way.." Ino gasped, "oh.. I hope you guys will be alright. I wish I could come too."

"Ino, you would only get in the way. You aren't properly trained for this kind of stuff." Shikamaru crossed his arms.

"Only get in the way, eh?!" She growled.

And that sparked a fiesty little argument.

* * *

"So why aren't you talking to Sakura?" Naruto asked his best friend, as they left Shikamaru's house.

"Hn, what are you talking about?" Sasuke asked Naruto, shoving his hands in his pockets and keeping a steady pace.

"How much more obvious can you make it?" Naruto snorted, putting his arms behind his head. "I saw her eyes flicker over to you numerous times, and you didn't arrive there together nor leave together."

"Mind your own business." Sasuke muttered, and continued walking.

"It is my business, why are you always hurting her?!" Naruto said, raising his voice.

"You know nothing, so it would be better if you kept quiet." Sasuke furrowed his brows, "why don't you go find Sakura then and ask her what's wrong?"

"What're you blowing up on me for, I just wanted to make sure everything was alright, sheesh." Naruto mumbled.

"Whatever, asshole." Sasuke muttered, truth be told Naruto was the last person he needed asking him what the problem was.

* * *

She hadn't properly slept all night, all she had really done was cry. Cry because she was an idiot for thinking he would return her feelings, cry because despite all her efforts it was not her who he had wanted too see. Would she ever be good enough?

She had thought it through very carefully and decided that she had to do this, for both his sake and her own sake as well. Mustering up all the courage and strength she had inside of her, she carefully left her house and headed towards the Hokages building.

What was the point of being with somebody for the rest of your life if they did not love you back?

Hinata knew this was foolish, and her family and her clan would definitely shun her for this, but it was the last page in the love story she had always hoped would bloom into something more.

She was going to ask for the marriage to be called off.

* * *

"I can't tell if these clothes smell worse or look worse." Tenten sighed, spinning around in front of a mirror. She was dressed in brown rags, with a pair of brown flip-flops and a white bandana.

"It's all part of the mission, Tenten. You will have plenty of time to dress fancy after it is over." Neji stated, dressed in gray rags, a blue scarf and a pair of flip-flops. They looked like the perfect fashion disaster combo together.

"You know that's not what I meant." Tenten rolled her eyes, "since when I have I ever had a passion for dressing fancy." She snorted.

"Whatever the case is, we have too give this mission one hundred and ten percent."

"Okay." Tenten muttered, "sheesh."

* * *

"Don't stress so much, it'll be okay." Ino said, handing Shikamaru a mug with some tea in it.

"Ino, you don't understand the severity of the situation." Shikamaru said, placing his hand on his forehead.

"Oh? I think I do." Ino furrowed his brows, "Shikamaru, what's the point of stressing about something when nothing has even happened yet?"

"It's always good to think ahead."

"Not like that, it isn't." Ino frowned, "look, you're going to be away on this mission for a while. At least be here with me for now." She said, slumping down onto the sofa next to him, she began twirling her finger on his shoulder.

"Ino, stop it." Shikamaru muttered, pushing her fingers away. "I'm not in the mood."

"Are you serious, right now?" She furrowed her brows, "what did I do?! I'm just trying to make you feel better!"

"Ino, I'm stressed out right now, just leave me alone!" Shikamaru said, raising his voice and marching upstairs to his room, where he slammed the door shut.

"Fine!" She shouted back, and bolted out the front door.

"Stupid jerk, I'm just trying to make him feel better and he lashes out on me!" Ino said to herself, in between her sprint home.

* * *

"Um.. Lady H-Hokage?" Hinata said softly after knocking on the door. "May I come in?"

"Who is it?" Shizune said from the other side, "yes, you may."

"I-It's Hinata Hyuga.. erm... I-I have something important I wish too discuss.. with L-Lady Tsunade... is she here?"

"Hm?" Shizune asked her, raising a brow. "You haven't heard? Mi'Lady has been busy all morning, dealing with the situation about the sand and the rain."

"W-What? What's going on?"

"The rain village has declared war on the sand."

"O-Oh my.."

"So I'm sorry Hinata, but for now the hokage is very busy and won't be able to meet with you."

"I-I understand..."

But she knew that the longer she put this off, the worse it would be.

* * *

"Good we have all arrived, I see." Shikamaru stated, "and you all came dressed, perfect."

"Shall we head out then?" Neji asked, "it will take just under one day too get there, so everyone best be equipped."

"We're ready!" Naruto exclaimed, "look at our squad! Three jounin, a medic, a chuunin and whatever teme is!" Naruto's statement earned a glare from Sasuke.

"Don't overestimate them." Shikamaru said, "let's go then, to be on the safe side we will walk there at a normal pace, nothing you would expect from a ninja."

So the group decided to head out of the village and off to their mission, Naruto lead the way with Tenten and Sakura following behind him, Sasuke behind the girls and Neji and Shikamaru in the back.

Shikamaru looked around the village on his way out for that one particular face he wanted too see, but she really wasn't coming to drop him off to the gates, was she? Perhaps he had been quite hard on her, he was just so irritated with the mission and she caught him at the wrong time. He would apologize to her when he was back, he knew how to pacify Ino by now, damn troublesome woman.

* * *

"Awkward!" Tenten shouted about an three hours into the journey, nobody, absolutely nobody had said a word since they had left the village.

"Hm?" Sakura turned her head in Tenten's direction whilst continuing walking.

"Why are you not walking with Sasuke?! Or Naruto?!" She said in a hushed whisper too her pinkette friend.

"What? Can't I walk alone?" Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"No, I mean.. you guys haven't spoken a word since we left. You know I thought since you got married and all yesterday you would've..?"

"Tenten! He'll hear you..!" Sakura said in a hushed whisper, "it's nothing I swear! He is just having one of his fits!"

"Mhmmm.." Tenten rolled her eyes.

"Jerk." Sakura mumbled loud enough so that only she could hear, Sasuke had not spoken to her since he had left the house this morning. She would definitely confront him about this later, no way she was going to let him push her around like when they were younger.

"Shikamaru? Is it alright if we take a break? I know it's kind of early, but walking in these sandals has made my feet hurt!" Tenten exclaimed, sneaking a wink in to Sakura.

"Sure, but a quick one." Shikamaru stated, "there's a stream up ahead. We'll stop there."

So they reached the stream and everybody sat down to take a break, Tenten was not tired in the slightest, but she had just wanted an excuse for Sakura to go confront Sasuke about what was bothering him.

Neji and Tenten were perched under a tree, munching on some apples. Shikamaru stood farther in the back, looking at a map, Naruto was in the stream trying to find some clean water to drink with Sasuke watching him from the grass.

"Ahem... Hey." Sakura cleared her throat and stood next to her husband of one day.

"Hn."

"What's your problem?!" Sakura exclaimed, catching the attention of the others. She instantly placed a hand on her mouth and turned pink. Sasuke didn't react at first, but then furrowed his brows and grabbed her wrist and tugged her in the opposite direction. "It slipped out I didn't mean too-"

"Sakura, enough. What's wrong with you?!" Sasuke said, with a hint of annoyance or anger in his voice, Sakura couldn't tell which of the two it was.

"Its you! You walked out on me this morning!" Sakura accused, jabbing a finger right into his chest. "Sasuke, I understand that you may have been shocked about what I told you, but that was the past and you have no righ-"

"No right?" Sasuke repeated, furrowing his brows. "You expect me to continue eating my breakfast after you tell me that you slept with my best friend and then had a baby with him which you then lost?!"

"Shhh!" Sakura cried, "I told you nobody knows about that!"

"No one is around, relax." Sasuke stated, "Sakura, that is besides the point. I am not angry with you, I'm just dealing with it."

"But.." Sakura trailed off, her eyes downcast. "It isn't the right way.. you know? I mean... we're married now, you aren't supposed to run away from me and ignore me. You are supposed to be there for me and tell m-"

"Sakura, I'm not that guy." Sasuke stated, "you know that very well."

"Yes, but-"

"I think we should talk about this later, for now our focus should be on the mission." Sasuke murmered and walked away from her and back to the group.

Sakura stared at his figure walking away from her and clenched her fists.

Nothing had changed had it?

* * *

"Dammit!" Tsunade exclaimed, slamming her palm on the table. "Why didn't you alert me sooner?!"

"M-Ma'am?! I-I just.." Shizune stuttered.

"Shizune..." Tsunade said, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. "Call forth every ninja we have left in the village and tell them to prepare for battle. Make sure all of the villagers are safely inside and tell them that it is a emergency level one lockdown." Tsunade paused to take a breath, she was clearly stressed.

"Y-Yes Lady Tsunade.." Shizune said, running for the door.

"Shizune?!" Tsunade called, halting her. "Is it possible to call Shikamaru's squad back into the village?"

"E-Erm.. yes, if we act immediately.. I can assemble a squad of three and send them quickly. At the pace Shikamaru's squad is going, they should be able to reach them on time."

"Good. Do that if possible, the last thing we want right now is too send them into the rain village, dammit!" She growled, punching the wall, "this was a trap, that I should have seen coming."

"Mi'lady.. it's not your fault.." Shizune mumbled, unsure of what to say to not provoke the Hokage.

"They knew we would attempt something like this, that is why they didn't attack us right away." Tsunade said to herself, "they made it seem like... ugh!"

* * *

"Hurry up, you're so slow!" Kiba growled, as he swiftly jumped through the trees. "Why did Tsunade add you too the squad?"

"Will you be quiet?! I'm going as fast as I can!" Ino growled back, "and maybe because every strong ninja in the village is either guarding the gates or the borders!"

"G-Guys.." Hinata mumbled, trying to stop the pair from arguing.

"I understand why I wasn't called forth to guard the village, considering I haven't been a ninja in a while... but you? I thought you were supposed to be strong." Ino smirked evilly, cutting through some trees.

"Why, you b-" Kiba started.

"Kiba please! O-Our mission is to find Shikamaru's squad before they g-get to the rain village.." Hinata cut him off.

"Don't worry Hinata, it takes like twelve hours to get there. It's only been six hours since they left the village.. plus their going at a slower pace, it'll be fine." Ino gave her a reassuring smile, "now, we should hurry.."

"Right!"

* * *

**Yeah I know it sucked**

**Review me ASAP so I can write the actual interesting portion of the battle **

**Toodles**

**-MB**


	12. Revelation Part One

**Hello guys! **

**So since I thought that last weeks chapter was pretty crappy I updated extra quick for this one.**

**This climactic chapter haha**

**Apologies if it seems rushed**

**enjoy :) **

* * *

A few more hours had passed by since they had last stopped for their break, it was getting late into the night now and it was rather foggy. It made sense though, the closer they got to the rain village, the worse the weather would be.

"So.. shouldn't we find a place to camp out?" Naruto said, asking the leader of the group.

"I was hoping to reach the rain village by nightfall, but I guess not." Shikamaru answered.

"That is highly unlikely, it takes us just about seventeen hours to get there, and even more so due to the pace we are currently traveling at. It has only been roughly eight hours since we left the leaf." Neji calculated, "our best bet is too camp here and continue in the morning, when it is much less foggy."

"It's so dark too, it wouldn't do us any good." Tenten added, "shall we find a nice area then?"

"Sounds like a plan." Shikamaru answered, "Tenten you get the f-"

"Help me!" A voice called, causing the group to go silent. "Please help me!" It belonged to a female, or so they concluded. Quickly turning their attention to the source of the voice, they all silently stared in the general direction of where the voice was coming from.

A girl appeared in front of the pair, covered in dirt and cuts and bruises, she was wearing a bandana on her head, or had used too as it had fallen off her head and around her neck. Her clothes were rather torn and her face displayed fear and fatigue, it seemed as if she had been running for a long time now.

"What happened to you?!" Naruto gasped, rushing to the girl's side before anyone could do anything else.

"Please! They're after me, you have to help me!" She cried frantically.

"Who is? Who are you being chased by?" Neji asked, crossing his arms.

"Soldiers! Military men!" She cried, "I told them that I am not affiliated with the Sand village in anyway, but they do not listen!"

"Sand village?" Tenten repeated, "are these men that are hunting you of the Rain?"

"I-I don't know..!" She shook her head frantically, "please, help me! I do not want to get beaten again!"

"Don't worry." Naruto said reassuringly, "you won't. Not if we have anything to do with it."

"There she is!" A man's voice called from afar, "get her!"

"Ah!" The woman screamed, hiding behind Naruto.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" Naruto called, "hurting a helpless girl like this!"

"And just who might you be?" The man asked, furrowing his brows. He was dressed in all black, he wore armor and carried a sword on his back. He wore a headband that had four vertical lines drawn on it, representing the Rain.. as did all of the other men that followed him.

"I'm N-"

But before Naruto could finish, Sakura interrupted him.

"We're travelers!" She called, "we happened to run into this girl."

It would do them no good for their mission if their identities were made known.

"Travellers eh? From which parts?" The biggest most intimidating man asked the pinkette.

"I don't see how that's any of your business." Sasuke stated coolly.

"Seems suspicious." One of the men muttered.

"Round them all up as well, we will take them back too the village and have the Lady decide what is too be done with them."

"Right!"

So the men all gathered around the group and began grabbing each of them, tying all of their hands together with a single rope, so that they could not escape.

"Ugh!" Tenten growled, "are you seriously going to tie that thing any tighter?!" She yelled at the man tying her rope.

"Feh, shut up!" He shouted.

Sakura caught Shikamaru's eye and noticed him nod swiftly, as if he was telling her to just go with it. Of course, this was a simple way to get into the rain village without any trouble. Once inside they could go from there.

Unfortunately not all were as bright as the pair.

"Let me go!" Naruto shouted, "I said I won't come with y-"

"Erm, just stop fussing alright, Prezi?" Sakura blushed a little bit at how stupid she sounded.

"Prezi?" Naruto repeated, raising his brow. "What's Prezi?"

"Your name you dumbass!" Sakura growled.

"O-Oh right..."

* * *

"Where the hell are they?!" Kiba growled, "we've been at it for so long now!"

"That's true, I don't know." Ino added, "this fog isn't making things easier either."

"Kiba, can you or Akamaru catch any of their scents?" Hinata asked, sounding a little bit hopeful.

"Yeah, we can still smell them. They were here a little while ago." Kiba stated, "but I thought they were traveling slower than us? Where could they have gone too then?"

"Why don't we just keep following their scent and maybe we'll run into them? I mean, as long as you can smell it still right." Ino said.

"I can smell them!" Kiba growled, "stupid girl."

* * *

"How much farther are you going too take us?" Sakura asked, obviously tired and annoyed with the fact that they were just about to settle down for the night when they got captured. They hadn't stopped since being captured and it didn't seem like they were going too anytime soon, "we're hungry and tired, yenno."

"Quiet, woman!" One of the men called, "we are not going to stop till we reach the village. You shouldn't have been wandering by our borders."

"Ugh." Sakura rolled her eyes, these sandals had been giving her blisters on her feet, earlier she just healed them when they got too bad, but she couldn't even do that now, making her feet ache a lot as well. She wondered how the others were quietly going through this, maybe because she was always in the hospital and not out on missions.

"Got a plan?" Tenten mouthed to Shikamaru, who had been silent for the past hour as they walked. He nodded once, that was all the convincing she needed.

"Say... where did that girl go?" Naruto asked, looking around.

"Which girl?" Neji repeated.

"The one getting attacked."

"Strange, she disappeared." Neji stated, also noticing the girl was nowhere in sight.

* * *

Four or five hours of continuing their search and nothing. Ino kept asking Kiba every now and then if he lost the scent, but he always claimed for it too be there. So the trio followed it, and followed it.

"This is going no where." Ino stated, pausing on the open ground below them.

"It's so foggy too, and it is really starting too rain. This must mean we are close to the village of the Rain." Hinata stated, "now what?"

"Ah! Help!" A voice called, breaking the trio of out of their thoughts.

"Who is that, can you guys see?!" Ino asked, looking around.

"Over there!" Hinata pointed, "it's a girl! She's injured!"

* * *

"Welcome to the village hidden in the rain." One of the men smirked as they arrived, "please, come in." He said with a fake grin.

"In here." Another man called from a building, the soldiers walking with the gang pushed them in that direction where they were all crowded into one jail cell.

"You will stay in here until we receive further orders." They stated, and left the cell with two guards staying behind, but they were far enough so that the gang could talk amongst themselves.

"Listen guys, no matter what, we cannot let them know we are from the leaf village. Not until we know where they stand with us got it? But... these guys seem anything but friendly." Shikamaru whispered, "they are obviously tense and paranoid that everyone is plotting against them."

"Did you hear what one of the men said earlier? That we would be taken to the Lady?" Neji stated, "I thought that their leader perished."

"Yes that is correct." Shikamaru nodded, "it may be a temporary leader or somebody who has taken advantage of this situation."

"True enough." Tenten nodded, "my wrists are so bruised from that damn rope." She cried, rubbing her wrists.

"Yeah, me too!" Naruto winced, "they were so cruel!"

"Mmmm.." Sakura moaned, as she placed a hand on her aching foot. Soothing it and simultaneously healing it too get rid of all of the bloody blisters.

"So now what?" Sasuke asked, "we just sit in here."

"No, give it a little while. We'll get out of here." Shikamaru stated, "just rest for now."

"Hn." Sasuke answered, choosing to sit in the corner of the rather large cell and gaze out the small window.

"All rise for the Head Lady!" A voice called, breaking the gang out of their thoughts. Roughly an hour had passed by since they had arrived at this cell and Shikamaru had not given them a signal on what too do, so they sat quiet.

"Head lady?" Sakura whispered, exchanging glances with her group.

A few seconds after she had whispered that, a woman dressed in a long black coat with short purple hair, a few piercings and a flower in her hair entered the room. She had a calm blank expression, no emotion whatsoever.

"These are the prisoners, I assume?" She asked the men, who bowed and then nodded.

"Yes, lady."

"Very well, identify yourselves." She ordered, glancing at all of them one by one.

"We are... travelers." Shikamaru started, "our village was attacked, we were looking for aid."

"Is that so?" She asked, "What is your name and which Village do you belong too?"

"My name is Shikamaru, and I am from a small village that lies near the Sand Village." He answered calmly, damn this girl was very interrogating.

"I see," She paused, "and the rest of you? You are all traveling together, then?"

"Yes." Shikamaru answered.

"But then... I was told you were found near the east border of the rain village." The woman started, "if your village was near the Sand, would you not be coming from the south?"

"We must have gotten lost." Shikamaru stated.

"Very well." She paused, then glanced over her shoulder. "Bring the others in."

Others? Shikamaru thought to himself and turned his head in the direction the woman was looking in and widened his eyes in shock.

There, chained together were Ino, Hinata and Kiba. From the looks of it they had been beat up pretty badly, prior too being summoned here. Ino's pleading eyes met Shikamaru's for a brief second and he was torn.

Torn about what too do.

If he were too try to help her right now.. he would inevitably start a war with the Rain village, they would know that they were from the Leaf and that they were sent here to spy on them.

But if he didn't... they would hurt Ino.

"Lock the leaf village ninja up, interrogate them by any means necessary to find out what they were doing here." The woman ordered, "as for these folk..." She paused, resting her eyes on Sasuke for a second too long. "Keep them here for a little while longer."

"Yes, lady." The men said, and then she left the room, accompanied by all of the men.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura said in a hushed whisper, "we have to do something! They are going to hurt them!"

"I know, Sakura!" He mumbled, "just... just let me think!"

"Hinata!" Naruto mumbled, looking at the girl he had spent the last few weeks with. She was not meant to be in this kind of situation, Naruto had seen the delicate side of her in the past weeks and this was the last situation she should be in. Seeing her like this, bruised and bleeding, it disgusted him too no end and he would make sure that the person responsible would be punished, clenching his fists in anger.

"Now." One of the guards said, appearing in the room. "I'm going too ask you nicely, why you were roaming around our borders?"

"Feh, none of your business!" Kiba spat.

"Loud mouth wants to go first, eh?" The man smirked, "fine." He mumbled, opening the jail door slightly so he could drag Kiba out, he grabbed him by the neck and pulled him into a second room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"I-Ino..?!" Hinata whispered to her blonde friend.

"D-Don't worry Hinata... just stay calm." Ino gulped, more to herself than to Hinata.

"GAH!" Kiba screamed from inside the room.

"Tell me right now!"

Silence and then more of Kiba's screams, this continued for a few minutes, before the door opened and Kiba was thrown back into the jail cell, unconscious and bleeding.

"I really don't like too hurt a girl."

"Then be a man." Ino rolled her eyes.

"Feisty blondes, I like." He smirked, "just tell me why you're here, so I don't have too hurt you."

"Shut up." Ino said rolling her eyes again.

"Fine then, blondie. Have it your way, don't say I didn't warn you." He smirked, "I always like to save the best for last." Another smirk, before turning his attention towards Hinata and pulling her up so that she was standing. "Tell me, why you are here."

Hinata said nothing, so the man pulled her out of the cell and began to drag her into the room where had been previously with Kiba.

"Hinata!" Ino shouted.

"Ino, d-don't worry! I'll be fine!" Hinata managed to get out before the door was slammed.

"Hinata.." Naruto mumbled.

Brief taunts and yells could be heard from inside the room, obviously the voice belonged to the man, it wasn't as intense as it had been previously with Kiba, until one moment.

"That's it, you think you're tougher than me, eh?" The man said, "tell me why you're here or you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

No answer.

"H-Hey! Let me go! D-Don't you... ah!" Hinata's faint screams could be heard.

"Quit moving around!"

Sakura covered her mouth with her hand and exchanged glances with Tenten, she knew what was going in there. The man was attempting rape with Hinata, and they were all just sitting idly by.

"That's it!" Naruto growled, the gang turned their heads in his direction and gasped at the huge flow of chakra that he was emitting.

"Naruto.." Shikamaru mumbled.

"I'm not gonna sit here and watch that guy hurt Hinata, like that!" Naruto shouted, "the mission is not more important than a friend's life!"

"Naruto.." Sakura mumbled.

"Ino!" Tenten called too Ino, "open the gate for us!"

"Hm?" Ino said, standing up. It was true that the man had left her cell door open, but how was she supposed to open the gate without a key.

"These gates are definitely designed to hold a ninja in. No sorts of chakra will work on them." Neji concluded, "damn it." He furrowed his brows, it was just as hard on him as it was on Naruto for him to listen to his cousins screams.

"But, you guys are trapped in there!" Ino said, rushing out of her cell. "But I'm out here, and this guy just messed with the wrong girl!"

"But... what I just don't understand is that they know that you three are ninja, yet they leave an ordinary guard to interrogate you and guard you." Sakura stated, "it just doesn't make any sense."

"There's more than meets to the eye here." Shikamaru added, "I've been observing the guys behavior for a while as well. He's gentle out here, doesn't do much, but once in that room... and Kiba is a strong ninja, how could he be reduced to that state?"

"Which means... it's not him that's doing this."

"Correct, there's another person involved."

"That's nice and all... but I'm saving Hinata!" Naruto growled, punching the cell, but nothing happened.

"Ino, look around in the drawers. Maybe he left a key?" Sakura suggested, Ino nodded and quickly looked around in the drawers for a key.

"What kind of idiot leaves a key lying around?" Tenten sighed.

"Found one!" Ino chirped, and ran over to the cell where the gang was in, inserting the key and click, it opened.

"Wow." Tenten snorted.

Naruto pushed past the gang to get out and marched over to the room where the man had took Hinata into.

"You let her go, you sick son of a-"

"Well, if it isn't the nine tails brat." A different voice said calmly.

"Who the hell are you?!" Naruto shouted, "and where's Hinata?!"

"Oh? You have not heard of me? What a shame."

"Where the hell's Hinata, you jerk?!" Naruto growled again, "or do I have to punch it out of you!"

"Over there." The man pointed to what seemed like a closet door. "Go ahead, I don't mind."

Naruto glared at him and then opened the closet door to find Hinata unconscious inside, he got down to her level and attempted to shake her awake. Once that proved to be unsuccessful, he lifted her up bridal style and turned back to face his opponent.

"Just who the hell are you-"

But he was gone, there was nobody there.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, rushing into the room where Naruto was. "Let me see her."

"We have to get out of here." Shikamaru said, once Naruto, Sakura and the unconscious Hinata had emerged from the second room.

"Yeah, and back to the leaf." Tenten added, "you saw how their so called leader treated us, they are definitely not allies."

"Just who was that though." Naruto mumbled, "the guard wasn't in the room, it was a different guy."

"What did he look like?" Neji asked.

"He... his face was covered."

"Let's go." Ino cut off, the group nodded and attempted to open the door that led them out of the jail.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"I-It's locked.." Ino gulped.

"Let me." Sakura smirked, landing an earth shattering punch on the door. But it still stood in front of them.

"What the-"

"I see you have all broken free." A voice said, the gang recognized it as belonging to the woman from earlier. It appeared too be coming from the radio that was laid on the desk, "I had my doubts about you belonging to the leaf."

"What do you want with us?!" Naruto shouted.

"What we wish for is a revelation." She answered, "and that will begin with a war. We want a new world, reform in society."

"You're crazy!" Tenten called.

"Maybe so, but the current state of the world is not something which we find ideal."

"And just who might you be?" Neji asked.

"I am Konan, former member of the rain village. Current member of the Akatsuki."

"A-Akatsuki?" Sakura stammered, "so then all of this is your doing!"

"Yes." She answered, "the flames should probably be ready by now."

"Flames?" Sasuke repeated.

"Yes, I apologize but we have to light this jail on fire and exterminate all of you. It will come to the attention of the leaf that this was the rain village's doing, and then the world will fall apart." And then she stopped speaking, but it was too late. While they had all been distracted by her chatting too them, a small fire had been growing in the back of the second room and it was currently expanding too the area in which the gang was.

"Oh god!" Ino coughed, "what do we do now?!"

"Dammit!" Shikamaru shouted, all the exits were locked, they couldn't smash their way out of here. They had no other option, they were finished.

"Everybody crouch down to the ground and spread out!" Neji shouted, "stay away from the fire and hopefully luck is in our favor!"

"Ten minutes, countdown."

"What the hell was that?!" Ino called from one corner, she was currently huddled down on the ground next to Shikamaru.

"A-A time bomb.." Shikamaru gulped, pointing to the centre of the room.

[ 09 : 59 ]

Pieces of the wooden ceiling and some of the bars from the cells began to fall, separating most of the gang up.

"So.. this is how it ends?" Ino coughed, "if the fire doesn't kill us, the explosion will."

"Ino.." Shikamaru trailed off, scooting over next to the blonde.

"It's fine." She gave him a half smile, "at least I'm with you, right?" She said, pulling up closer to him and placing her head on his shoulder. Shikamaru wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and massaged her arm.

"I'm sorry about earlier." He mumbled, "I was stressed and-"

"It's okay, you silly." Ino gave him a smile, a few tears began to form in her eyes. "Just.. its okay."

* * *

"I'm not giving up, just like that!" Tenten shouted, hitting various parts of the wall, hoping to find a way out.

"It's of no use, Tenten. We are trapped." Neji said.

"So you just want me to lay here and wait till I either die of suffocation or get burned alive?!" Tenten shouted again.

"I'm just saying, let's try the more logical way of thinking." Neji said, rolling his eyes. He did a few hand signs, "byakugan!" Looking around, hoping to find another exit. "Hm, this is strange."

"What?"

"There isn't anybody within 3 kilometers of this place."

* * *

"Hinata, c'mon wake up!" Naruto said, trying to shake the girl awake.

"Mhmm, N-Naruto..?" Hinata mumbled, slowly opening her eyes.

"You're awake!" He said, giving her a one of a kind smile.

"Y-Yes.."

"I wish I could tell you that things were going to be alright."

"Hmm.." She looked around her surroundings as Naruto filled her in on what Konan of the Akatsuki said to them and the situation they were in at hand.

"Listen Hinata.." Naruto started, "I don't like to say these kinds of things, but if this is the end, then I want you too know I'm glad I'll go down with you!"

"N-Naruto..?"

"You've shown me how genuinely kind you are in the past few weeks! You listen too me ramble on and on, you cook me great food and you're just such a good friend!" Naruto said, giving her a big smile.

"N-Naruto..." Hinata said, looking away. It was now or never, she thought to herself, "I love you."

* * *

Of all the people she was going to die with, it had too be him. They sat in silence, together.

There were so many things Sakura still wanted to do, successfully be the top medic ninja, have children, be genuinely in love.. she was only twenty. A few tears began forming in her eyes, and before she knew what was what, they were streaming down her cheeks freely.

"Sakura." He said, "stop it."

"Stop w-what?!" Sakura cried, "how am I supposed to remain calm when I'm pretty sure I'm going to die, and all my friends as well! There are so many things I still wanted to do, so much I wanted to experience-"

"There's a way out." Sasuke mumbled, "but.."

"What?" Sakura repeated, furrowing her brows at once. "How would you kn-"

"Not now, next to the door we entered in. There's a incomplete wall, it is breakable. Break that, and you'll be out of here." Sasuke said, coughing in between.

"Alright, let's go then." Sakura nodded, attempting to get up. Regretting it instantly as she erupted into a fit of coughs, there was a large amount of smoke in the air, even more so when she stood up. She had almost forgotten about the fire for a second in her joy at the chance to escape. It had slowly spread just about everywhere except some of the corners in which the gang were each occupying supposably. Although she could not see anybody else due to the fallen wood chunks and the smoke in the air, she decided her best bet was to yell it out.

"Guys! G-Guys, there's a way out! Come to the front... the way in which we were brought in!" Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs, then coughed some more. "Hurry!"

"Countdown, three minutes."

"Sasuke, c'mon!" Sakura called over too her husband, but noticed he did not budge. "Why aren't you..?"

"I can't." Sasuke mumbled, pointing to his leg which was horribly gashed and also trapped under a metal bar that must have broken from the jail cell. "Go on without me."

"No way." Sakura shook her head, "here I can lift it off you." She said, quickly grabbing a hold of the bar, letting go instantly as it was burning hot.

"It's no use, I tried." Sasuke said, "it's stuck in there, pretty good."

"Don't give up!" Sakura shouted, grabbing a hold of it again, but it didn't budge.

"Go Sakura, the timer is going too go off soon!" Sasuke growled, raising his voice.

The smoke in the air had gotten so thick and black to the point where nothing was visible, the sound of the fire and the ticking of the timer were so loud that they were unsure of who had heard Sakura's message and who hadn't.

"Sakura, go!" Sasuke shouted again, "it won't due us both any good if-"

"I'm not going too leave you!" She cried, "why don't you understand that?!"

"You're annoying." He stated, lowering his voice. "Get the hell out of here, you're not going to survive otherwise!"

"Tell me this then, if it was me trapped like that, would you leave me behind?!" Sakura shouted angrily at him. He didn't answer, simply averted her gaze.

"Countdown, fifty nine seconds."

"You're an idiot." Sasuke mumbled.

"It's alright." Sakura smirked.

"Sakura.." Sasuke started, looking in her direction finally. "Come closer."

"Hm?" Sakura shifted a little bit so that she was closer to the Uchiha, he grabbed a hold of her wrist and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled.

"Countdown, thirty seconds."

"F-For what..?" She said.

"For all of it." He mumbled.

She closed her eyes and waiting for the heavy impact that was yet too come, she had never held onto something so tight in her life as she was holding onto Sasuke right now.

"Don't be scared." Sasuke said, grabbing onto her just as tight as she was grabbing onto him. He would try at least too lessen the impact he could on her.

It was the least he could do anyways.

Considering he was the one who had gotten them into this mess.

And for the fact that he had not seen it before.

The beautiful soul that was Sakura Haruno.

"Countdown, five seconds."

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

KABOOM!

* * *

There was a ringing in her ears, she could not figure out what was going on. Opening her eyes slightly, she found herself confused and unable to figure out where she was. Slowly getting up and looking at her surroundings, she found herself unable to recognize anything. There was debris everywhere, that's all she could conclude.

"M-Mhmm.." She moaned slightly, "w-where am I?" She spoke, hoping somebody would give her an answer. "A-Ah.." She cried, touching her ear as it began to pound, her eyes widened when her hand was covered in blood, touching her ear again she realized her left ear was bleeding.

"Ino?" Another voice said softly, "you made it out okay then."

"Hm?" She said, turning her head in the direction of the voice. "T-Tenten?"

"Yeah, you're the first one too wake up." Tenten gave a small smile.

"What happened?" Ino asked her, unable to recall anything.

"The explosion in the jail.." Tenten started, "Sakura shouted out something like there was a way out.. Neji and I heard it and got out of there and began running as fast as possible."

"I-I see.." Ino mumbled.

"We were still thrown into the air by the bomb blast though, but we were just knocked unconscious for a little while, not very injured either. Neji's gone too find the others now, we also called the leaf village for help." Tenten stated.

"Alright.." Ino said, clutching her head. Tenten's words were going in one ear and popping right out the other.

"Are you alright?"

"My head's just..." Ino said, lying down on the ground.

"Just hold on a little bit longer, reinforcements should be here soon."

* * *

"Naruto!" Neji called, "Hinata!"

He received no answer, he had been searching for the pair for about twenty minutes now, after being knocked unconscious from the blast, the Hyuga was the first too awaken, after confirming that there was indeed nobody in the vicinity, he searched and found his brunette counterpart not too far from him. The pair had no serious injuries, so they split up to find the rest of their friends. So far no luck, Neji did not want to assume the worst.

"Dammit." He mumbled, he couldn't even use his byakugan to find the others for he was worried about using too much chakra. His body was already at its limit.

"N-Neji..."

"Hm?"

"Over.. here.."

Neji dug around the rubble and found a hand, digging around some more he found Naruto barely conscious with Hinata lying in his arms, unconscious.

"Naruto! Hinata!" He called, he took Hinata from Naruto's arms and after carefully lying the girl down on some grass, went back and helped Naruto up from the rubble. Placing him carefully next to Hinata, he analyzed both of their injuries.

Hinata sported the bruises she had from earlier and did not seem very injured, she had a few burns here and there but it seemed as if Naruto had protected her for the most part.

Naruto on the other hand, had many gashes all over him. An especially nasty one on his head, it seemed too be a concussion.

"Naruto, stay awake, alright?" Neji said to his blonde friend, "if you pass out, that may be the end of it."

"Hm.."

"Please watch over Hinata for me, I have to find the others." Neji said to him, Naruto nodded in a daze, and Neji reluctantly headed off in the other direction closer to where the jail had been too find the rest of the gang.

* * *

"Any luck?" Ino said softly as Tenten came back to where she had been laying after searching around for quite a bit, Tenten shook her head no. "And any word from the leaf?"

"They shouldn't be long, many of them were at the borders, so give or take a few minutes." Tenten answered, "Neji found Hinata and Naruto, their injured but they should be alright."

"A-And Shikamaru?" Ino asked, raising her voice a little bit.

"Sorry, not yet."

"I see." Ino said, looking away. She was trying her best to recall what had happened before that bomb went off.

_Flashback_

_"__... a way out!" _

_"__Did you hear that?!" Ino shouted furiously to Shikamaru, they had been sitting together in the smoke infested room for the past few minutes now. Smoke was everywhere, so they could not see or hear much._

_"__It sounded like Sakura!" Shikamaru answered._

_"__She said there's a way out!" Ino shouted, sounding hopeful. "Let's go!"_

_"__Go where? We don't know where it is!" Shikamaru answered, "just stay put." _

_"__And what? Wait for that bomb to go off and kill us all or die from this fire!" Ino said, coughing a few times._

_"__Ino, if we get up and begin looking for this way out or Sakura, we may put ourselves in even more danger." _

_"__Yeah but... if we just sit around.." _

_"__I have a plan." _

_"__Hm?" _

_"__I can try to destroy that timer." Shikamaru mumbled._

_"__What?!" _

_"__It shouldn't be too difficult to deactivate." _

_"__No way, that's too dangerous." _

_"__Ino, it's our only choice. We have no idea where this way out is." _

_"__N-No.. what if you do don't succeed in deactivating that thing?! At least from this distance we are somewhat far away from it, but if you're right next too it...?!" _

_"__I have too try." Shikamaru said confidently._

_"__Countdown Two Minutes." _

_"__I'm going." He said, casting her one final look before turning around too leave._

_"__Wait!" She called, halting him. She crawled over to where he sat and placed a small kiss on his lips lightly, "Shikamaru I..." Ino mumbled, looking away._

_"I know, me too." He said, understanding what she meant too say. Finally Shikamaru broke away from her and crawled off into the direction of where the timer had been. Ino scooted back against the wall and broke into a fit of tears, she was alone now._

"O-Oh my god..." Ino gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. "T-Then.. that means that he couldn't deactivate it in time..."

"Hm?" Tenten said, "what happened, Ino?"

"Shikamaru went to try and deactivate the timer... b-but the explosion happened regardless..!" Ino said, holding back a few sobs at the thought of her lover being dead.

"Ino.." Tenten whispered, realizing what the blonde was implying. "I.. I'll go tell Neji to look there."

* * *

"Is that what she said?!" Neji asked Tenten, shock evident on his face.

"Yes, so we should look under all that rubble." Tenten said, nodding. "Where did you find Naruto and Hinata?"

"Pretty close to where the jail had been."

"And any sign of Sasuke and Sakura?"

"No, but they must be alright, they were the ones who warned us of this."

"True, enough." Tenten said nodding.

They reached the exact area of where the jail had been and frantically began digging through the rubble and calling out the names of their lost comrades.

"I've had enough of this." Neji growled to himself, "byakugan!" He shouted and began searching around the area. "Over there!" He pointed, to where a tree was overturned, "I see a body!" His stomach churned at the mere sight of it, "o-or what's left of it.."

* * *

**And this was Part 1 of the Climatic chapter.**

**Hope you enjoyed and I hope you liked my attempt at being dramatic haha**

**Anyways any guesses on who the body belongs too? **

**Review me !**

**Next chapter probably won't be up for a while though **

**-MB**


	13. Revelation Part Two-Sad Songs For Lovers

**Hey guys whats up! **

**So I finally decided to update hahaha .. I had most of this chapter written out for the longest time, but I wanted to add more, but then just kinda ****rushed the end and added it haha a.. guys give me some suggestions, I'm a little bit lost here where to go with ShikaIno and NejiTen.. I have some ideas for SasuSaku and NaruHina though!**

**Anyways enjoy!**

* * *

She paced.

And paced.

And paced.

Twenty Four hours.

Twenty Four Hours was a very long time.

Although the emergency reinforcements from the leaf had arrived quickly, along with them some highly skilled medical ninja. They could only do so much in such short notice of time, they had to be in a proper setting too do the appropriate surgeries and that meant they would have to rush to the leaf village as fast as possible.

So that's what they did, they arrived back at the village about twelve hours ago.

And here they were.

She had been waiting in the waiting room for god knows how long, unsure of which of her friends were alive and which of them were dead. Her own injuries were not too be taken lightly either, but she needed to be here when he awoke.

"Sit down, you're going too hurt yourself."

But her friend's words went in one ear and out the other.

"Please sit, it won't do any of us any good if you hurt yourself even more." The voice of the Hokage, she glanced in her direction and obeyed her orders. Sitting down, she began fidgeting with the material of the hospital gown she was dressed in.

"Lady Hokage."

"Hello Tenten." The Hokage said, "I know you just got back, but I need to know the full story of what happened."

"Yes, of course." Tenten answered, looking wearily in her friends direction. "I don't think Ino is up for it right now, so I'll tell you all of what I know."

"That would be best." Tsunade said, taking a seat across Tenten in the hospital waiting room. "As long as you are up for it."

"Yes, I'm fine." Tenten said, giving a half smile.

"Answer each of my questions, to the best of your ability." Tsunade stated, "I am going too try and get every perspective on what happened."

"Yes, of course." Tenten answered.

"I have already been filled in on what transpired before the explosion, what I need to know now is what happened during and after the explosion." Tsunade started, "I understand that all of you were split up, so you all experienced things very differently."

"Y-Yes.." Tenten mumbled, "but I'm not sure what else I can tell you other than what Neji has already told you."

"Neji Hyuga stated that both you and him heard Sakura's warning and rushed to get out of the burning building. You made it out in time, but still received a small impact from the explosion, not enough too hurt you severely but enough too knock you unconscious."

"Yes." Tenten nodded, "I know we should have looked around for our friends in there... but... at that moment, nothing rational was making sense in our brains.. survival instincts just kicked-"

"Tenten, don't worry. I'm not blaming you for what happened." started Tsunade, "I just want to know every detail."

"Yes." Tenten said, looking wearily.

"Anything else?"

"Not that I remember, sorry." Tenten said shaking her head.

"Ino?" Tsunade said softly, turning in the direction of the blonde. She examined her physical appearance, her forehead had a bandage wrapped around it that went around to cover one of her ears as well. Considering that she was so close to the explosion, she received a heavy blow and could not hear properly from her left ear. Although the doctors had stated that it would be temporary and within a few days too weeks it should be back to normal. Luckily she was thrown out of the debris and did not have any other major injuries, Tsunade was more worried about her mentally than physically.

"Hm?" Ino said, turning her attention to the Hokage.

"It would greatly help if you could tell me your side of the story." She said softly.

"I already told Tenten..." Ino whispered, looking away. "Please just ask her."

"Very well."

So Tenten filled Tsunade in on what transpired inside, how they didn't hear of Sakura's warning in time and how Shikamaru went to defuse the timer.

"Thank you, both of you. I'm going too go ask some of the others what I just asked you, excuse me." Tsunade said, leaving both girls in the waiting room and heading outside to a different ward.

It was strange, Tsunade did not understand how Ino had managed to survive the explosion when she was right next too it. The Akatsuki had clearly wanted the group to die, they did not want word to get out about what they were planning.

The leaf village had been lucky, no direct attack on the village, not many casualties.

Except for one.

She cast her eyes downward, for if she had thought of the right thing to do at the time, perhaps this life could have been spared.

* * *

*Knock*

"Yes, come in."

Tsunade entered the hospital room labelled 205. This was an individual room provided for patients that weren't sporting any critical injury, but still injured nonetheless.

"Hello Neji." Tsunade said sternly to the Hyuga who sat on the chair that was meant for visitors. "How are they doing now?"

"Better." Neji answered, "Hinata's been up for a few hours and Naruto woke up not too long ago."

"Good." Tsunade nodded, "do you mind if I have a word with them?"

"Go right ahead." Neji said, getting up from the chair so that Tsunade could sit in it instead. She took a seat and turned her attention to the pair that lay in their respective hospital beds.

"Naruto, Hinata. How are you both feeling now?" Tsunade asked the duo.

"Mhmm, I feel like crap." Naruto mumbled, massaging his head. "How are the others?"

"Their well." Tsunade lied, not wanting to let Naruto know of the grim situation right now. "I need to ask you a few questions."

"Mm." Naruto moaned, "go ahead, grandma."

"Tell me what happened when you were in there? How did you survive?"

"I.." Naruto started, "let me remember, it's kind of blurry."

"Of course."

_Flashback_

_They sat in silent after that, unsure of what too do. Hinata had told Naruto she loved him and they never spoke a word after that. He was the last one anyone would except too give up and that's just what he decided. The pair would not give up, so Naruto decided to try and look for an exit._

_"__N-Naruto are you sure?" Hinata asked, fear evident in her voice._

_"__Hinata, we can't just give up!" Naruto shouted, she nodded. They began crawling their way around the fire, knocking on various parts of the wall in hopes that they may find an exit._

_"__It's no use, Naruto.." Hinata mumbled._

_"__Hurry up, Tenten! This way!" _

_"__Was that brother's voice?!" Hinata gasped, "I have to find him!" She exclaimed, quickly crawling in the direction she had heard Neji's voice._

_"__Hinata, wait!" Naruto called, rushing after her._

_"__I know I heard his voice." Hinata said to herself, looking around._

_"__Watch out!" Naruto shouted._

_"__Huh?" _

_She gasped as she saw a huge chunk of what used to be the wooden ceiling falling towards her, closing her eyes as she prepared for the huge impact, she flinched._

_But the impact never came._

_Hinata fearfully opened her eyes and saw Naruto laying above her, taking the full blow from the wooden chunk, collapsing on top of her, the wooden chunk still on the pair. _

_KABOOM!_

"That's the last thing I remember." Naruto stated, "then I awoke a little while later, the wooden thing was still on us, but so was a lot of other rubble. Neji got us out after that."

"I see, so that's where the concussion stemmed from." Tsunade concluded, "and the simple matter is the wooden chunk protected you."

"Yes, the impact of the explosion would have been much more deadly had that chunk not fallen on the two of you." Neji added.

"I'm sorry, Naruto..." Hinata whispered.

"Hm? Sorry? For what?" Naruto asked her, giving her a grin. "You saved our lives! If you hadn't wandered off we both probably would've been dead."

"Thanks, Naruto." Hinata blushed.

"Thanks for that, but I just don't get it.." Tsunade began, "how could an explosion be so weak that a wooden chunk of the ceiling protected the two of you."

"Yes, highly unlogical." Neji said.

"So everyone's alright?" Naruto said, sounding hopeful.

"Yes." Tsunade nodded, then began to get up from her seat. "Naruto please, get some rest. I wish too speak too everyone together later, for now I must go."

"Alright."

And she left that ward, heading down the hall again she went to the operating room.

* * *

"How are they doing?" She asked the doctors.

"One is out of danger, the other is in surgery."

"Please, do your best."

"Of course, ma'am."

She could not comprehend anything when she opened her eyes, where was she? What was she doing here? What happened before everything went black?

"Mhnn.." She moaned, adjusting her eyes to the light.

"You are awake, good."

"Hm?"

"How are you feeling, Sakura?"

"Lady Tsunade?"

"Yes."

Sakura blinked a few times and recognized herself as being in a hospital ward at the leaf village hospital. Tsunade was too her right and Tenten was too her left. What the hell was she doing here?

Then it hit her.

The fire.

The explosion.

The building.

Sasuke!

"AH!" She screamed, jolting upright and regretting it instantly when she felt an earth shattering pain in her left side.

"Sakura, not so fast." Tsunade said, helping her too lie back down in the bed. "You're injuries are very serious."

"M... How am I even alive right now? What happened?!" Sakura shouted, clearly shaken by the whole event.

"That is what we want too find out." Tsunade said, "I know you just awoke Sakura, but its urgent for me too know how you survived. Just what happened with you and Sasuke in there?"

"I..." Sakura furrowed her brows hard trying to think, "I don't know."

"Hm?"

"All I remember is that his leg was stuck and he found a way out... I shouted it out loud so that the others could at least escape, but I decided too stay back with him."

"Wait, hold on a moment." Tsunade paused, "Sasuke knew of a way out? How?"

"I don't know, he just said all of a sudden that one of the walls was incomplete and it could be used too bust out of the place." Sakura answered.

"I see..." Tsunade said, furrowing her brows, "and after that?"

"We sat there.." Sakura began, "but I don't remember the explosion going off."

"What do you mean?"

"I was with Sasuke and then I don't know, everything just kind of went black." Sakura answered.

"Sakura, about the injuries you sustained.." Tsunade said, "they aren't the normal sorts of injuries you would expect from an explosion. In fact, you shouldn't even be alive right now. Your injuries include a few broken ribs, sprained wrist and swollen eye."

"I don't follow." Tenten and Sakura said together.

"If you had truly gotten the impact from the explosion than you would have had burns and other sorts of injuries. But the injuries you have make it seem as if you were in a battle." Tsunade stated.

"But... I wasn't." Sakura mumbled, "Sasuke was with me the entire time you can even ask him-"

"Sakura, are you sure that nobody else was there with you?" Tsunade said interrupting her.

"No?"

"I see, excuse me." Tsunade said, leaving the room, there were two more people she had too see before she called a meeting.

* * *

He had woken up not too long ago, the injuries he sustained were horrible. First and foremost there were several burns, the explosion had gotten him the worst and he had been thrown under a ton of rubble. He was probably supposed too be dead right now, but by some miracle and thanks to the ninja of the Leaf, he was out of danger.

"I can't believe you did something so dangerous!" Ino shouted at him.

"I did what I had too do as a leader." He answered her, closing his eyes.

"Yeah, by risking your life Shikamaru!"

"I'm fine, Ino." He said, casting her a glance and locking his eyes with her momentarily.

"Em.. Excuse me? Sorry for intruding, but its absolutely urgent that I speak with you." Tsunade said, appearing in the room.

"Oh, Lady Tsunade's here." Ino said pointing to the Hokage, "she's just trying to put together the pieces of this mission."

"Shikamaru I have too know, above anybody else's story of survival yours is the most amazing. Tell me what happened in there." Tsunade asked.

"I deactivated the timer." Shikamaru mumbled.

"But the explosion... it still went off."

"The explosion that was actually supposed too occur was ten times in power as the one that did occur. This one would not be powerful enough too kill anybody by the explosion alone, the other one... none of us would have survived from that." Shikamaru said quieter than before, "is everybody else alright?"

"Yes." Tsunade lied.

"Good." Shikamaru said, taking a breath of relief.

"Shikamaru, Ino.. I will be calling an emergency meeting with your squad in about an hour. Please come down too room 105."

"Alright, ma'am." The pair said and she bid them farewell and left the room.

*Knock* *Knock*

She entered the room labelled 105, and looked at the patient lying in the bed. He was awake, staring out the window.

"You're awake."

"Hn, yeah."

"How is your leg?"

"It'll be fine."

"It really is amazing how you survived." Tsunade said, narrowing her eyes. "You were so close too the timer after all."

"Hn, it is a miracle." Sasuke answered, meeting her gaze for the first time. There was something different about her, she wasn't her usual self towards him right now. "Is Sakura alright?" He asked suddenly.

"Yes she's fine." Tsunade answered, "just a few typical injuries.. you know, swollen eye, broken ribs, sprained wrist."

"I see."

"So, Sakura tells me that you knew of a way to get out of the cell?"

"Hm?" Sasuke raised a brow, "yes, I noticed that wall was weaker."

"I see then." Tsunade said, narrowing her eyes again. "Excuse me." She said before leaving the room.

* * *

A few days passed by since the incident had occured and everyone had made it back to the leaf village safely... or almost everybody had.

"I can't believe he's dead, I mean now that the funeral is over and all... it just feels so surreal." Sakura said, sadly. She was dressed in a black dress, she had been discharged from the hospital a few days ago after her injuries had healed.

"I know, it feels so incomplete you know?" Ino said too her best friend, who was also dressed in a black dress. The pair were sitting on a nearby hill at a park not too far from where the funeral had taken place. "How is Hinata doing?"

"She's devastated, he was her teammate after all." Sakura stated, "he died an honorable shinobi death."

"Yeah..." Ino trailed off, "just feels weird, not having Kiba around anymore."

"I know, but we can't let his death go in vain."

"Yes.."

"Lady Tsunade is calling an emergency meeting today with those of us who were present there, apparently its urgent." Sakura stated, "in about an hour I heard."

"Alright then."

"Ino, you seem so out of it, is everything okay?"

"Hm?" Ino blinked, "yes, everythings fine." She lied through her teeth.

* * *

The eight of them were gathered in the Hokages office, everybody was pretty much healed from their injuries, Sasuke had too use crutches to support himself, and Shikamaru sported a few bandages, other than that everybody wasn't doing too bad.

"I see you all made it back from the funeral then." Tsunade said rather grimly, the group of them nodded. "Very well then."

"Lady Tsunade... just whats been going on lately?!" Shikamaru shouted, he was the first too speak. It was obvious that he had been rather annoyed for the past few days, considering he was the team leader, he felt somewhat responsible for Kiba's death.

"As you know, the Rain Village had already declared war on the Sand Village." Tsunade started, "and from what I have gathered from all the information reported too me by your group, the Akatsuki is involved."

"Yes, they said they wanted a revelation. They want the world at war." Sakura added, remembering her conversation with the woman from the Akatsuki known as Konan.

"It is unfolding exactly how they want it too!" Tsunade growled, raising her voice. "It is not only a matter with the Sand and the Rain anymore, the hidden mist village has also gotten involved. They have decided too ally with the Rain Village."

"And what is the Leaf going too do?" Neji Hyuuga asked.

"The leaf has... chosen to ally with the Sand." Tsunade stated.

"What?!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Shikamaru..." Ino mumbled.

"Lady Tsunade, you realize you are walking right into the trap that the Akatsuki is setting for us! They want us to get involved within the war!" Shikamaru shouted.

"We can't just sit back and do nothing either!" Naruto shouted.

"If you don't understand anything Naruto, then just keep quiet." Shikamaru growled, he moved his way out of the room but not before making one last remark. "This is just going to lead to countless deaths, just like Kiba."

"Shikamaru!" Ino gasped, running after him out of the room. Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temples.

"That was very rude of Shikamaru." Sakura mumbled.

"Its alright, he feels responsible somewhat for Kiba's death." Tsunade said, "it will take him some time to get back to normal."

"So what are we too do next?" Neji asked.

"For now, we aren't doing anything. We've set up a line of defense around the villages borders, but it is unlikely they will attack us just yet."

"And the Sand?"

"Tensions are high, but nothing at the moment. I will keep you informed, just stay alert always." Tsunade said, "you are all free for the day."

* * *

"Shikamaru, wait!" Ino shouted after him, but he did not turn around, he just kept walking. "Hey!" She shouted, catching up to him and attempted to grab his arm.

"What?" He growled.

"What's wrong... you know you can talk too me." Ino said quietly.

"No Ino, look I just need some space right now." Shikamaru said, turning to leave.

"We're all carrying that day with us you know! It hurts all of us!" Ino said, raising her voice.

He didnt respond, he didn't even look back at her, he just left.

"What do I do..." Ino mumbled, looking away. She felt so helpless, she wanted to help him but she felt like she didn't even know him anymore.

Maybe she was just overreacting?

* * *

"U-Um... Lady H-Hokage..?" Hinata said quietly, when everyone had left the room.

"Hinata? Yes?" Tsunade said, taking a sip of her coffee, she was clearly stressed.

"I..I-Its about the wedding.."

"Hm? Oh yes! Your wedding, sorry Hinata, its been a stressful couple of days, I haven't really been thinking about that."

"Yes I know, I understand..."

"Its in three weeks if I'm correct?" Tsunade said, taking another sip of her coffee.

"Y-Yes.. but I..." Hinata began twirling her fingers, "Lady Tsunade, I want to call it off.."

"Hm?"

"I've thought about it and... I just.."

"What brought about this, Hinata?"

"Its just.." Her eyes began to tear up.

"Have you talked to anybody of this?"

"N-No.."

"Hinata, you know what will happen if you do not go through with this." Tsunade started, "you will no longer be a ninja."

"I know.."

"And, Naruto of all people should be informed of this before you decide to go through with it."

Hinata gasped, then turned her head away.

"Hinata, don't be so rash." Tsunade said calmly, "talk too him."

* * *

**Yeah Im stuck :( **

**So review and help me? **

**Ill update faster haha**

**-mB**


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